The Birds and the Bees, May 11, 2026, 678 words.

To identify birds in my area, I use the Merlin App. It is free from Cornell University. The Merlin will identify birds by their song. Overlapping songs can be identified. I just step outside in the morning to record about a minute of bird songs. The Merlin uses a large bank of recordings to help identify the specific bird songs. It makes it easier to make a list of birds in your area. The app listens to the recording and will list the bird sound heard. You can click on a bird name to learn more about that bird.
We also have two outdoor cameras to record movement in day or night. The Cornell ornithology lab has been collecting photos and audio recordings for over 100 years. In 2002, e-bird was launched. This is a worldwide collecting and recording of bird sights by amateur and scientists to collect data on current bird migrations. Data is collected and sent to Cornell to be analyzed. Many recordings in the lab archives are of birds now extinct. All the Cornell apps are free downloads for your phone.
On early sunny mornings, you will see and hear bees busy collecting pollen from spring flowers. Sometimes the earliest blooms may have more than one bee in the bloom. I placed my Easter lily on the porch table to receive morning sun. The blooms were alive with buzzing of busy bees. Don’t remove old flowers until they are drying to give the pollinators ample time to gather the pollen.
This is a time to see youngsters with their parents. This week a family of five turkeys has appeared most late afternoons to eat under the bird feeder and get a drink of water. The Tom usually stands on the top of the hill, where he can keep an eye on his flock. He puffs up his feathers to appear bigger and more intimidating to predators. The females and two poults scratch for fallen bird seed. Then they wander to the neighbor’s yard and the next feeder.
Young fox squirrels have trained us to throw out several raw peanuts in the shell. If we are late, they stand on the back of chairs or look into our kitchen to see if we have the peanut treats for them.
Lastly, young groundhogs will emerge in the early morning and again in the early evening to forage and get a drink. They stay in their burrows in the heat of the day.
The raccoons are seen on the motion camera in the middle of the night. Often more than one time in a night. They will step into the cement water basin to cool their paws as they drink. A young raccoon was captured by the camera lens last evening.
Deer are active in the hours of dawn and dusk. Deer will rest for 4 to 6 hours each day. They sleep in quick blasts of 30 seconds to several minutes at a time. We will be watching for newborn fawns to be hidden in the tall grasses at the edge of our woods. A doe will go off to graze, leaving her fawn hidden and standing still for protection with the camouflage markings that mimic the tall brush or grasses. John was walking in the woods last spring and almost tripped over a newborn fawn before he saw it. The fawn never moved.
Chipmunks and an occasional skunk are caught on the cameras as visitors. They are getting a drink and move on.
An open backyard near a wooded lot can be full of wildlife in the spring.
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Sounds of Spring
Listen to morning songs.
Titmouse “Peter, Peter, Peter” with whistles and clicking.
Cardinal song “ a melodic cheer, cheer, birdie, birdie rings through the woods.
Early robins greet the dawn with a rising cheer call when excited.
Most birds will produce a sharp warning when a predator is in the area.
Most of the songs in spring are to attract a mate and made by the males.
carolaspot@aol.com
copyrighted 5/11/26