The new deer fence, with its tall, wood posts and sturdy wire, is doing a right proper job of keeping deer out, but it’s welcomed a new creature in: birds.

Jason noticed their arrival first. Working in the gardens, he realized he wasn’t alone anymore. Birds used the fence posts as landing pads to dip down to the beds. And just as Jason was growing more accustomed to seeing them, they seemed to be getting more comfortable around him.

After hearing his observations, I noticed it, too. Closing up a Cat tunnel for the night, there were a half-dozen robins searching for worms in the freshly-buried potato patch behind me.

Birds aren’t the only creatures using farm airspace.

As I rolled up the sides of the Big Tunnel, this eastern tiger swallowtail fluttered in the corner. It must have mistaken my yellow glove for a flower because it wouldn’t give up trying to poke its black straw through the fabric. Safely set upon a dandelion, it got straight to work.

While the fence appears to be drawing birds in from the woodline, the farm shed has always been a prime spot for nesting. We have robins now. Mother and father robin both bring food to the babies. I watched the mother drop a worm in a baby’s beak, and as soon as that worm was down the hatch, the baby opened its mouth again. I, also having a child who is a bottomless pit, imagined that mama bird sighing as she alighted from the nest to fetch another snack.

~ Stella