The Rookery Cottage

09/06/2026

The most beautiful Red-spotted Purple on our sedum 💜

09/03/2026

This morning’s monarch release. We are raising three caterpillars and this is the first one to emerge. My kid calls her Moosey. Safe travels to Mexico, Moosey! 👋🫶🦋

08/08/2026

Went outside to take a video of one of the twin fawns we have living here, and just missed the wild turkey and barred owl calling in the trees. But I did manage to get the pewee peweeing, the red-bellied woodpecker chuckling, and faintly, the hummingbirds fighting over the feeders. Then a groundhog ran by just after I stopped the video. Morning, neighbors!

07/29/2026

Raisin understands the importance of welcoming guests. And on rare occasions, scaring the bejesus out of them when they arrive in the darkness. “We heard heavy footsteps.” 😆🤡

07/12/2026

Hot summer days are perfect for splashing and floating in the river!! 💦
Whiterock’s River Campground beach is just 1/2 mi down the road.

06/23/2026

🐦‍⬛🦇🩶

06/08/2026

We have a lot of wildlife visitors here, but it’s not often we see a turtle! 🐢 Found this beautiful painted turtle sauntering across our lawn and then disappeared into the tall grass on its way towards a creek. Safe travels! We enjoyed hosting you 😊

05/07/2026

Saunter with Lindsey! 🌱🌼

My absolute favorite thing to do is saunter outdoors with people and talk about the plants we meet! My calendar is packed with festivals, retreats, public walks and group events and I will still make room for private land walks! If you and your family have land or even a frequented public space that you’d like me to survey for edible and medicinal plants, or perhaps you also need help identifying invasive species that could be beneficial to remove from your ecosystem. I highly encourage you to get on my schedule, booking available in July!

https://www.herbanforage.com/product/private-land-walks-for-plant-identification/34?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

05/05/2026

We are so lucky to have them at our place and at neighboring Whiterock Conservancy. ☺️

I am not the bird that sings at sunrise. That's everyone else. I'm the one chanting my own name from the same branch at 2 AM.

Whip-poor-WILL. Whip-poor-WILL. Whip-poor-WILL. Without pause. Without moving. If you've counted past a hundred and given up, you weren't close to the end.

I just flew here from Central America. Found the same dry oak woodland I used last year. Started calling the moment I arrived.

The call is an advertisement — to females passing overhead, to rival males nearby. It carries through still spring air farther than most people expect.

I time my breeding to the moon. My eggs hatch so the chicks reach peak hunger during the brightest moonlit nights of June, when I can hunt moths in near-daylight conditions. Almost no other bird in North America builds its calendar around moonlight.

🌙 How to hear one:

- Dry oak or pine-oak forest, eastern or midwestern US — May through June is peak
- Step outside between dusk and dawn — densest calling is around moonrise and moonset
- Pick a moonlit night — calling rates increase significantly when the moon is bright
- Listen for a rolling three-syllable chant repeating steadily from one fixed direction
- Stand still — footsteps in dry leaves silence every nightjar within range

A two-ounce bird that flew here from Central America, calling for a mate by moonlight 🌿

04/24/2026

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