nesting Painted Buntings right outside my window. I had never seen one before and they are something to see. My "vulture tree" across the pond got smashed in a storm years ago and they are much less frequent after all that has come after that. (I wish I could figure out how to post pictures, they were a sight all sitting up there) The Ospreys still used it until last year but another storm altered the tree again. They still come then go but fewer than before. Then it became the eagle tree much to my surprise. We have quite a lot of Bald Eagles from time to time, no more than 4 or 5 at a sitting in that tree, mostly one or two at a time. They come and go. All the other birds around here show up now and again and some stay. Of all the birds that I always wanted to see, I hear them, my neighbors complain about them and my farm has housed them but all these years I have never seen a Pileated Woodpecker.
A couple of months ago my ancient bird book fell out of my hands and became and huge, flying tower of pages. I guess the binding broke. I cried and put it together haphazardly so I could maybe get it rebound or something. It had 40-50 years of observation in it and my husband put it in the trash when I was not here and it is gone. One more thing thrown into the garbage because after all those years dragging it along everywhere we went he did not know what it was (?).
Everything has an ending so now I just look out of the big front windows I had put there specially for watching the wildlife out here. I hope it keeps growing, the wildlife, lol. Fewer will make it harder maybe when you are out looking for them but if we blow this off I would have little hope of their long term survival. *I have not read the article yet, sorry I usually do it the right way but needed to release a but of upset over my book and fill it with nice observations.