The birds are on the nest! Barred Owls. Peregrine Falcons. Red-tailed Hawks. Bermuda Petrels. Royal Albatross (get out your Coleridge). Some are just about to lay eggs, others are incubating, and the Albatross already has a chick. So now’s the time to open a window on your preferred species, move it to a corner of your screen, and experience the season in real time: the female regularly rolling the eggs, then resettling with a fluff of feathers as if arranging the folds of a gown; the male bringing in little feasts—small birds, squirrels, chipmunks, crayfish, mice. The ornithology department at Cornell University is one of the world’s greatest, and the Cornell Lab Bird Cams is a perfect place to start your watching. I spent last spring with the Red-tails in Ithaca. This year it’s the Barred Owls in Indiana. Lovely and poignant are the moments throughout the day when the couple communicates, she in the nest, he somewhere in the woods. “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” That’s the classic description of the Barred call. Where are you? I’m still here! Any food on the way? —L.J.
