Rodents, and other mixed blessings

They're so cute, really they are. I let the family of field mice stay in my compost wheel bin over the winter, because I felt badly they might get eaten by this (also very cute) stoat (short-tailed weasel, or Mustela erminea) 

image courtesy of Wikipedia

Still, spring has arrived, and I served the eviction notice, and they scampered out the door and ... straight into the pile of dreck I've been nursing along and pretending to compost. I guess I know what's next on the list of chores, don't I...

As I was clearing out the season's overgrowth and grass, (incredible how much grass, vines and other weedlife grow in the cold months) I got to know my emboldened neighbors, the meadow voles. Again, the only way to deal with them so far is to deny them harborage, so it's more trimming and clearing for me!

baby meadow vole; from Wikipedia

Still, there were plenty of birds around, and as much as I joke about the furry critters, it is part of the package when your garden plot is on conservation land. You get great soil, but you also have to be moderately friendly with the (furry, feathery or scaly) neighbors. Such is life; full of trade-offs! The birds at least are endlessly cheerful. I saw numerous kinds of swallows, song sparrows, redwinged blackbirds in the nearby marsh, and I think a meadowlark (checking on that one though... yay Sibley's) as well as the usual group of cardinals, blue jays, robins, and a few circling red tailed hawks.

Knowing what I'm up against this season, I've got my row cover ready, and I'm planning to hit the hardware store for some of the finer-grained chicken wire so as to cover the plants and exclude the perverse depradations of the woodchuck (one bite out of each and every vegetable, could they find a way to be more annoying?)

Now, I'm off to sort through my seed packets and decide how I'll distribute the remaining spring crops. I keep hoping I'll get some beets one of these years...

So many birds,

...and I wish they'd eat more mosquitoes, but who's complaining? Okay, it's true. Now that my arms and neck are devastated by the clouds of mozzies that assaulted me at sunset, it's true, I'm complaining. A little.

On the other hand, I really enjoy the sheer number and variety of birds that I see and/or hear at the allotment when I stop to rest a moment.

For your amusement, and from the safety of your computer terminal so that you don't have to brave the mozzies...a list of the ones that I know about. There are others that I'm still identifying by call and by plumage, but since I can link to a photo and recording of their call (Thank you Cornell Ornithology lab):

The usual suspects:
Blue Jays
Robins
catbirds
barn swallows
tree swallows
sparrows of various kinds
crows
starlings

More often heard than seen:
red-winged blackbird
pheasant
mourning dove
mockingbird
yellow throat warbler
yellow throat vireo

More often seen than heard:
Brown-headed Cowbird
red-tailed hawk
grackles
Baltimore Oriole