When I first saw the black - capped chickadees coming to my open feeder this winter I was surprised. I looked back in my notes from last year to check. There were no black - capped chickadees included in the lengthy list of birds I had seen (a list that also included the mountain chickadee).
 
The b/c chickadees are such friendly little birds that it is easy to train them to eat out of one’s hand. And they are one of the few birds that greet me with an enthusiastic “chick a dee dee” chirp whenever I appear with sunflower seeds.
 
I am particularly happy to see this species here in New Mexico, because Audubon says that the Black capped chickadees are moving northward due to climate change/tree devastation. Fortunately they are still around my house in Maine.

A number of years ago I decided to raise some baby mallards. As a child I used to feed and make friends with them, even as a toddler I was told. Because I live so close to North Pond I decided to raise some mallards and release them on the lake, although I had never seen mallards here and wondered why. After doing some preliminary research I learned that this area was a breeding area for wild mallards, so I figured that I had nothing to lose.

What an adventure! The “quackers” were characters. My dog adored them and they seemed equally fascinated with her because whenever Star visited with them they would waddle over to quack excitedly at her when she pawed their cage. I came to love them too, and although they made a horrible mess I loved the quackers enthusiastic morning greeting. When the day came to release them I felt sad.

By this time I had spent a lot of time in my kayak looking for a safe haven for the youngsters. I created a nest at the end of a peninsula, and left them there on North Pond. I saw the quackers occasionally during that summer but when they migrated in the fall they didn’t return… I believed my experiment to re- introduce them had failed.

Canadian Geese have been on my mind a lot lately. This past winter I have missed the skeins of geese that fly back and forth up and down the river appearing every single morning like clockwork. In Abiquiu when winter turned to spring I noted that the geese were behaving in much the same way the Sandhill cranes did before they migrated, splitting into pairs or groups of three and flying erratically. I was puzzled. I didn’t recall witnessing such behavior before this year. I wondered about migration patterns. Were the geese shifting their flight patterns too? Or perhaps the small groups I saw were staying year round? Some days it almost seemed as if these water birds were confused by something.*
 
I saw three Canadian geese on the last predawn walk I took to the river/Bosque, just an hour or two before leaving for Maine. I knew that a perilous journey was ahead because we were driving. The C/virus was a frightening threat though I brought all food, and would camp/use woods as bathroom. The first morning after my arrival in Maine I saw and heard three geese honking over my head. I was struck by the odd synchronicity – (three geese at the beginning and ending of the journey). I remembered the mother goose tales of my childhood also recalling their mythology.