Introduction to Natural Pools - a film by David Pagan Butler

Quite possibly my next project to contemplate. My only worry with these is wildlife using it as their toilet. Obviously you don't introduce fish but things like racoons and opossums have some pretty nasty bacteria in their fecal matter. Even if I never swim in it though, it sounds like a fun thing to design.

Some Birding

There is something about the birds this year. I can't quite place what the change was but I'm seeing more of them, and it feels like I'm getting closer to them too. Pictured above was a sparrow that was particularly noisy chirping out a mating song, much louder than I expected a bird that size to sound and it didn't take off at all either.

At the feeder a gray/blue bird I haven't identified started showing up. Next to it is a red headed sparrow that I've been seeing more and more of lately. They just started coming to the feeder this year and I want to say it's all because we started using sunflower seeds.

Over the winter we had a flock of robins (they're social in the winter time) take over the yard for a day to use the pond. I'm happy to see a few still remember my yard and use the pond as a bath almost daily. What's odd is we've had the pond several years now and this is the first I've seen it happen. Perhaps they need to see another bird use it first.

A bird I hope to see this year as always is the gold finch. Unfortunately I'm having a hell of a time getting a patch of sunflowers started for them to use. There are some coming up here and there wildly but nothing like last year's patch or that gigantic one that came up. I do have other plant they're supposed to use growing, such as Cup Plant, Coneflower, Liatris, and a weedy thorn covered form of Thistle (that I want to get rid of).