okay so it is May 3rd and this is just a environmental update my backyard here
this is a pond and look who's visiting it this is a double-crested cormorant
this bird is here to catch my fish you have a nice webbed feet they have a
strongly hooked bill there that's the orange on its bill and its head is
tilted up a little bit like its lifting its chin this pond thankfully is 14 feet
deep so my fish have some refuge there plus there's lots of growth and reeds
and tree trunks and things like that for the fish to hide out in I did not see
this guy come up with a fish interesting part too about these is when I was a
child that was a children's book about the cormorant and on the Yangtze River
in China they were putting rings around their necks and they had them on tethers
and they were letting them dive and get fish and then that fisherman would give
the cormorant a small bit of the fish as a reward and they use it as fishing I
don't know if that's still going on today probably animal rights people or
shut that down but who knows they when they fly they make no noise so just like
an owl this thing kind of ghosts its way into the pond and when it takes off
other than the splashing of the water when it leaves there's no evidence that
it's been here this thing that also did not make any noises no calls very stiff
rather like tail feathers that you can't see here and they have to spend a lot of
time out of the water preening and oiling their feathers
because they're not very watertight the way ducks are you duck's feathers you
know are very water resistant because of all the grooming they've done with their
oil gland it's like it does big strong feet there I think it's kind of aware of
me
zipped around the pond again they didn't do a lot of diving
I was surprised there's a lot of looking around you're probably frogs do but I
think primarily fish and this is in Pennsylvania northeastern United States
these birds are widespread latin term means sea crow and the fishermen used to
kill them thinking that they were just competition for the fish that they were
getting you can see that strong hug top bill there so you can get a hold of fish
easily and you move fast through the water they go deep a lot of duck ponds
are shallow the fish really have no chance in this pond and I also have koi
and they are orange and yellow and white and very contrasting and conspicuous I
was very happy to see that this bird did not get any of those so we have cherry
blossoms of course because it's raining even though the wind is low you're all
wet the pollens wet the bees are not on them still early in the morning here on
Friday and the bees won't be coming out roll around noon unless their rain
continues it was unexpected that we would get this rain these are Tree
Swallows we have 35 bird boxes around the property and primarily they're
occupied by wrens these free swallows which are great bug
hunters bluebirds bluebirds only allow other bluebirds nest within 300 feet of
each other there and but these will allow community nesting so you'll see
several and here's a Robin sitting on top of one of my bluebird boxes Robins
do not use nest boxes I thought I'd show you this one that's just kind of hanging
out and grooming itself right next wood here our blueberries blueberries are
buzzed pollinated some people call that acoustic pollination where they just
sense the vibration of the wings of insects and cause them to pollinate this
is my dawn redwood it's a living fossil unlike a lot of coniferous trees this
one sheds its needles through winter and grows new ones in the spring close up at
a landing board of some of my beehives there are lots of bees in here and the
finish is holding up you can see that the rain is collected on the front but
zero activity this is a time when they are using the resources inside the hive
and why it's important to have hive top feeders nice and enclosed sheltered from
rain and that providing them with the resources they need to keep that brood
going this time of year lots of brood in there here's my
exercise gym that I made for myself which I'm avoiding today because it's
raining and when it's raining you know you can't work out you have to drink
coffee so that's it this is update that's what's going on in
my yard I wanted to show that armor and thank you for watching and don't forget
to check in again later on today or totally tomorrow morning I'll be doing
frequently asked questions number 15 beginning with honeybees thanks for
watching have a great weekend