On the Wildside

 I did not know that there were professional teams in my neighborhood. For the last couple of mornings, as I had my morning coffee, several professional teams have been working in our part of Randolph County. The Jays, the Cards and the Orioles have all been making their presence known. Chips, chirps, squawks and crees have all been very loudly expressed here lately.

I don’t know if that has anything to do with the way the actual teams are playing, but all the birds here are definitely making their mark in the air and in the trees. No, no not that way, in the way that you can hear them as they sound out their territory and let other birds, both of same species and any other possible rival, know that they are here. Just this week the orioles have been especially loud, I guess that the nestlings are getting ready to try out their wings, so everyone has been warned to stay clear. The cardinals and the jays have been trying to out do each other. I prefer the call of the cardinal, not because they are Janet’s favorite team, she being the boss and all, but I just like the sound. Jays tend to be some what raucous and noisy, but hey, they are the smallest of the crow family, so I guess they come by that sound naturally.

If you have been keeping your eye to the sky, especially in the early evening right after the sunset, you have been able to see some really beautiful panoramas. Some evenings there have been a nice set of clouds that help to accentuate the evening colors, which you can see from almost anywhere in the county. Soon we will be looking to the northeast sky after midnight for the Persiads meteor showers. But that will be revisited in our August Wildside entry. Looking to the south after about 10 p.m., you can see the large constellation Scorpio with its brilliant red eye, known as Antares which means the rival of Mars, the red planet. I don’t get into the astrology part of the stars, but from the scientific point of view, Antares is what is known as a red giant. One of those mystery objects which astronomers say are destined to eventually blow up. I know, so is the sun, but I don’t think I’ll be here for that event either. I can hear someone saying right now, “I can’t see anything, too many clouds”.

We have actually had a number of cloud free nights; it has been pretty nice, too. We have had some pretty good days for the crops, too. On my rounds as the paperboy, I have noticed some nice bean fields, some really good stands of corn and some decent hay fields. All in all things are going well here in Randolph County as far as nature is involved. The wind storms that hit the Jacksonville/Cairo area late in June were a bit of a scare, but no one was hurt other than some tree damage and a couple of roofs getting prepared for re-shingling.

Until next month, enjoy a home-grown tomato or cuke for me, burn another burger on the grill and stay safe. Let’s enjoy the summer, it goes so fast.