Now that most of us have to "slow down" some - take the time to go out for walks in the early morning or early evening and JUST LISTEN!!!
I could have transferred the audio to a file but decided to keep the video, too, you can see some birds fly by...

Yes, there is a nature out there that goes on non-stop and most people have lost that appreciation of it - I'm not talking about those strange and Wild Rain Forest environments or in Wild & Exotic Africa, just listen and observe in your own backyard or community.
I should have set the camera on a tripod but I wanted to catch "my" owl hooting and the birds still chirping before they roosted for the night, so just turn up your volume and listen but don't forget to turn down your volume afterwards.
I think the other birds were more active and stirred up because of the owl, but it is spring and over-wintering birds in the south are moving north, and over-wintering birds in this area are moving farther north, and it is the "uh oh" mating season getting started.

Enjoy your time out in nature right now!
BECAUSE once things get back to "normal" you'll probably go back to the same fast-paced world we had up until a month ago.

Nature's Chorus
Mostly Robins and one Great Horned Owl


Circa 1948

In early August 1956, the worst windstorm on record in Manning blew through our farm and north Manning - sustained straight line winds up to 120 MPH... The large barn which is built into the hill was actually moved about 6 inches. In 1986, when we renovated it, we put the large structural support beams in the basement, back to vertical - they were leaning in the direction the wind had moved the structure.
Many of the old large trees in the old windbreak blew down. I was just a baby about 5 days old, so I don't remember it but it is part of my "historical DNA perspective" that I grew up hearing stories about and then over the last 40 years, looking for pictures of the devastation. It so-happened to also be during the time of the Manning Diamond Jubilee celebration that they almost had to cancel, but since the storm mostly hit the north part of Manning, and not south Manning as much, the celebration went on as scheduled.


2002
For the last 40+ years, I've planted a hundred different species of shrubs and trees. Some survive and others don't but I wanted to provide as wide a variety of food source and shelter for birds, and also avoid planting just one or two species and then a disease or insect wipes them all out...like happened when the Birch Borer wiped out the Paper White Birch in Manning in the 1920s & 30s and the Dutch Elm Disease that wiped out the American Elm in the 1960s.

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