There I was, driving down a blacktop road on the way home to the farm — and driving too fast, too.  The sun had sunk low in the sky, and in the glare I nearly missed seeing them.  My brain first registered ‘Canada Geese’, which is a reasonable quick assumption because that’s the type of big wild [...]

Gulls aren’t what usually comes to mind when I think of Missouri birds.  We have lots this time of year though.  I took a half hour off for birdwatching earlier this week on a return trip from a family visit near Truman Lake, and I found a flock of gulls just waiting to entertain me.  [...]

This morning I found this brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) in the corn barrel in the feed room. It stared at me, but didn’t move. My father says that’s typical thrasher behavior. ‘They’re weird birds,’ he said. It even waited for me to jog to the house, grab a camera and jog back. Or maybe it [...]

Meet Spraddles. This American Buff gosling is about a week old now and having trouble with its legs. Spraddle-legs or splay-legs is a condition often caused when a new hatchling can’t get good footing to stand up well. No doubt that’s what happened to this little guy (gal?). It’s probably my fault, too.

Here’s what happened. [...]

Some days it’s nice to stay inside and watch the birds from the comfort of a warm house.

Me and the titmouse are still working on the goals and plans for 2008. We’ll let you know when the list has been whittled down from grandiose to what can reasonably get done in 2008 even if all goes precisely according to plan.