Feb 12, 2025 – Dave, being a birder and sharing his photographs, always adds a bright spot for us – we did not ask him to share his birds – they is just a part of us.

Dave wrote: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. An immature Cooper’s Hawk hanging around our yard and bird feeders. I did not see it make a kill. I sent you some shots of an adult a few days ago. The immatures have a completely different plumage.  Dave

I WROTE: On a small farm in the 1940’s, most work was done by hand and the farm was the primary source of food for the extended family of Brubake’rs.

My dad ran the farm, so we were either out in the field, in the barns, or in the chicken yard.  Every hour we had interaction with birds. Swallows had their mud nest in the barn, birds ate spilled grain from the barn floor, pheasants and doves gathered to glean grain and bugs  from the fields, crows were always stealing planted corn, flocks of geese landed in the cow pond to rest overnight, and owls kept the mice population under control.  Chickens kept the Brubaker compound in eggs and meat.

Birds were just part of us.  We did not go out to watch them, photograph them, or study them – we just enjoyed that farm with so many birds..