Catbirds and First Fire

Memorial Day Weekend and all is well. Well, if you can ignore the $4.00 per gallon gasoline....

Anyway, a gorgeous day here on The Cape. I spent the morning and early afternoon at the "dog place" and then came home to fiddle around in the yard. I cut some grass along the edges of the property, but no real mowing to speak of. I tilled under an area that I hope to utilize for larger plants this year like summer and winter squashes. I'll be adding compost and tilling it again prior to planting. It looks better than I thought it would and the the roots of the grasses that had over taken the area broke up well. A few more passes with the tiller and it should be good to go.

We have several gray catbirds hanging around. Catbirds are common "mimic thrushes" and mimic other birds' songs just like a Northern Mockingbird would, only a little different in the way they mimic. One of the main differences in their song is in the number of repetitions of any given sound. Catbirds sing along (almost endlessly) generally repeating a sound one time, maybe two. Mockingbirds blab on and on, but they'll repeat a sound five of six times before moving on to the next one. Anyway, a couple of them stopped in for a dip today. Catbirds are slightly smaller than American robins, gray/dark gray all over except for a black cap and rust color under the tail.

After supper (grilled pork loin, potatoes and grilled polenta) we had our first outdoor fire of the year. How nice it was to be out there again watching the bats just prior to dusk and later under the stars.
Have a great holiday everyone!