Love is A'Twitter Up North

With the arrival of Spring, signs of avian romance are plentiful in our daily travels. The swans and Canadian geese are coupling up, the songbirds are starting to arrive and sing their songs, and the turkeys are ganging together to watch the males display and strut their stuff.

After sharing my earlier shock at seeing two turkeys in our current citified back yard, I've since watched turkeys by the roadside at the airport (with city all around), as well as gaggles of turkeys in the fields and woods.

Dan and I were excited to notice an osprey nest at the top of a phone pole last week, where mom is studiously sitting on the nest and dad is busy bringing home the yummies for the little ones. We also saw a young bald eagle sitting atop an old barn.

On the same drive just east of Torch Lake, there was a large green farmer's field (perhaps winter wheat?) dotted with white spots that turned out to be seagulls sitting in the greenery. There had to be at least a hundred or more, and upon closer examination they were also coupled up. That made me wonder- where do seagulls have their babies? When I googled this question, I got the answer that they make nests in rocky cliffs. We don't have rocky cliffs up here, and I think for some mysterious reason this large field has become a seagull mating spot. If I get this confirmed, I'll let you know....