Wood Warblers This Winter of 2018 has been long and cold and quiet. It is nearly April and I long for the return of our songbirds, especially the Wood Warblers. The first green shoots of snowdrops have begun to push through the thawing crusty soil. Sugar maples are tapped and the sap has been flowing for awhile now. Steam is streaming out of sugar shacks throughout the countryside. On warmer days our year-round birds are singing. Robins and White-throated Sparrows are turning over … [Read more...] about Songbirds of 2017 ~ Wood Warblers
Beauties of the Night ~ Barred Owl
Barred Owls, Strix varia, may have been howling and hooting as year-round residents of this hillside in Western Massachusetts for more than 11,000 years. Fossils of their species, that many years old, have been uncovered in Florida, Tennessee and as far north as Ontario. These raptors of night are typically hidden in layers of darkness but do sometimes hunt during daytime hours. Looking out over the panoramic views of Flower Hill Farm Retreat, always stimulates the imagination. But last … [Read more...] about Beauties of the Night ~ Barred Owl
A New Website For Flower Hill Farm Retreat
Flower Hill Farm Retreat has a new website and and a new blog. Warblers and other songbirds continue to return to our gardens, fields and forest and some of the females are still busy building their nests just as we are nearly finished building this site. It is live now but still missing a few important details that will be installed very soon. This female warbler or vireo has me stumped — is she a Yellow-throated Vireo or a female Magnolia Warbler? The broken eye-ring and the larger beak … [Read more...] about A New Website For Flower Hill Farm Retreat
