Steward

I try to be a good steward of my property. I spend time on the yard.  I got rid of way too much mowed lawn and tried to establish a little prairie and create a more natural acreage where wildlife would feel welcome.  Lately I have felt defeated about my choices.  Amur maple seedlings number in the thousands. Buck thorn trees are fewer but I still have plenty.  Most discouraging of all is the garlic mustard that took over in the exact same spot I removed the buck thorn.  Oh, the irony; the back breaking irony.  I pull garlic mustard every week and fill my garbage container to the top.  I carry armfuls of the strangely delicious smelling invasive plant to the trash container.  I have to sternly tell myself not to look around.  Look at your feet.  Do not look at the garlic mustard. Internal dialogues rule my day. Yes, there is more garlic mustard but your container is full so stop looking! This week I even had the thought that I should hire a bulldozer (only if they let me drive!) and start all over. I could flag some trees and the rest could be scraped and I could start over.  Today that thought changed. I have heard a bird this week and wondered what it was.  I should know this bird song. I have heard it before. "Teacher teacher teacher" or is it only wishful thinking? I thought, maybe, if I'm lucky, it could be an ovenbird. My ears are still not adjusted from Sicilian birds to Minnesota birds.  Today, as the bird was singing, I played a you tube video of an ovenbird.  The outside ovenbird was singing to the you tube ovenbird. It was confusing at first but I have total control of the you tube ovenbird. It IS an oven bird singing in my very own back yard. What!  I know oven birds. With their racing stripe of red on their head, they only stay in large tracts of forest. Large tracts; not scattered tracts of forest. Oven birds don't care except they want acres and acres of forest. Oven birds don't know buck thorn is an invasive species. Strange little warblers who make oven shaped nests on the ground where the chipmunks can get them, oven birds are a declining species. I have an oven bird singing in my yard so maybe, just maybe, I'm doing something right! The oven bird made me feel better about my choices.  Here is a video from birdchick; a Minneapolis birder: