Generous soil

I can't bring myself to do it. Check the IBET Illinois birding message board, that is. Other commitments have kept me from birding this week, the peak of spring migration. I can't stomach reading about all the great sightings around the state.

I've tried to think of a way I can combine fantasy sports and birding since I can't actually get out. Imagine the excitement leading up to the fantasy birding draft. Red-winged blackbird has to go No. 1 in an Illinois-based draft. Canada goose, house sparrow, european starling are climbing the draft board as well. Red-eyed vireo a late-round sleeper during the summer months. Maybe a group of us can adopt the leading birders in the state and base our standings on their reports.

Yardwork trumped birding today and provided the best bird anecdote of the week. Worms emerged as we dug up the soil in our Uptown front yard. A pair of american robins lurked in the next yard. We threw a worm toward the robins, which had been our companions all day. Eventually, one of the pair gobbled it up.