Love Triangle - Goose Style

- Cool and crisp this morning, after the passage of a weather front over the weekend that brought rain and eventually lower temperatures to our southeast Tennessee area.

- The Redbuds are blooming in the mountains, the first leaves have appeared in the Sequatchie Valley (not very many in the mountains as yet), the creeks are swollen and noisy from spring rains, and the birds at at peak activity.

- The attached provide a pictorial of the competive, and sometimes nasty, disposition of the male Canada Goose during the spring mating period. From bottom to top.....

- Two male geese size each other up and posture for position as a nearby female takes on the role of a submissive, and seemingly uninterested, bystander (I couldn't tell if she was smiling).....

- The battle gets heated as the female looks on.......

- One of many chase scenes back and forth across the lake.....

- One male flies alongside his rival.....but they were simply moving from one battleground to the next......

- The top photos are of a comparatively docile pair of House Finches (the more colorful male is in the background...and yes, it was raining when the photo was taken). Their nest was approximately 10' away.

Springtime in the Mountains......

- Cool and sunny this morning, followed by a warm, breezy, radiant afternoon in southeast Tennessee! The temperature is currently in the low 70s.

- I heard the first Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) on March 5, 2009. These small members of Order Anura are often called "The harbingers of spring". Only the males call and they are almost impossible to observe as they sit motionless near wetland areas and woodland pools of water.

- Also, a real treat for this nature buff...twice in the last three weeks, during hikes through our properties, I have encountered Woodcocks. Both flew up unexpectedly, practically under my feet. One flew only a few yards and alighted next to a small woodland pond...in wet leaves. Though there was no other cover of weeds, saplings, etc., the bird was so well camoflouged I could barely make it out against the leaves, though only about 20' separated us.

- Barred Owls and Great Horned Owls are sounding off nightly on the wooded ridge behind my cabin.

- The attached photos...the top photo is the water's edge of Lake George. Deer party.

- The bottom photo is of a group of Red-Winged Blackbirds near Lake George. Note the colored shoulder patches (usually scarlet/orange/yellow in the males) on a couple of the birds. These birds nest in the willows along the banks of Lake George. A couple of European Starlings are also in the photograph.