Inaugural post, and an introduction to the Woodcock, my new favorite bird!

Woodcock. It’s a bird… really!
And it’s my new fav.

I didn’t know there were Woodcocks around here, but I did obsess for about a year trying to figure out what a certain weird buzzy call at dusk was. A friend recently tipped me off about the Woodcocks returning for spring, and when I looked them up, and heard their call, I immediately realized THIS WAS MY BIRD!

Now, these lil’ guys are pretty darn cute. In some ways they remind me of a Whippoorwill because of their coloring, and how they blend in impeccably in the environment. Unlike the Whippoorwill, their call is not nearly as… incessant. It’s also just kind of weird, which I like.

Here you can hear the buzzy sound they make, but there is one thing that I really needed to share with you here:

THE WOODCOCK WALK


What’s up in the Garden

Last year the Cottontail Rabbits devoured my garden, specifically all of my lovely spring lettuces, chard, peas, beans…and this winter even my leeks! So my #1 priority this spring was a huge rabbit fence to enclose all the veggie beds in. So now I have a rabbit fence in a deer fence. I hope I don’t need anymore fences! …I just need to build the gate this weekend. Then after this crazy cold weather I can plant my spring starts: bok choy, broccoli rabe, lettuces, chard, and other early spring goodies! I’m going whole hog on the middle bed this year, and will plant buckwheat as a cover crop on the left and right beds, which the bees just love.

Finally, exciting news! Both bee hives survived the winter so far, and as of Monday had lots of nectar, pollen, eggs, and capped brood. It’s still early, so I’m not sure what the bees were finding (the Maples just started flowering), but they certainly found something. If all continues to go well, I’ll be able to experience the spring nectar flow, and have some honey this year for sure! I just love these bees. They’re Italian bees, and the first hive you see in the video was the first hive I had, “Primo”. The other hive, “Secundo” developed when the original Queen left the first hive with a swarm last summer and I caught them and put them in a new box. That meant Primo made a new Queen, and now I have two hives. This will probably happen again this summer, but I don’t want anymore hives, so I may see if my mentor will want to purchase my “splits” (which is when you don’t let them swarm but you do split the hive yourself, which is a lot easier than catching bees!). I’m just hoping they will cluster tightly tonight and get through the temps in the ‘teens we’re supposed to have.

Bees Early March 2022