Mid-week, I found a perfect cup nest made of dry white pine needles in one of my boxes. This evening, I was surprised to find two eggs in it already. It probably just seems early because of the erratic temperatures we've had this month. New arrivals include a beautiful male Towhee, Chipping sparrows and some Meadowlarks lifting off my neighbor's hayfield and Ianding in the treeline, showing off his flashy yellow breast.
After six today, I drove to Meyerstown to check on the wildflowers along the Shenandoah. I got a real treat going down Dutch Hill Rd. A mature Bald eagle was soaring above. I followed him with my binoculars. That late sunlight really showed him off. He swooped down, buzzed another eagle sitting in the field, then went up into a nearby tree. The three Turkey vultures hovering made me look for a deer carcass. Just then, the eagle lifted off the ground, carrying something it had been feeding on, and then landed again to continue with its meal. Its mate stayed in the tree, keeping watch.
I stopped a man coming out of his long driveway adjacent to one of the fields on the right to tell him about the eagles. He told me they had a nest along the shore. Unfortunately, he said there is talk about the two big fields being turned into solar fields. Yuck! We've seen Horned larks there in years past.
