April 22, 2014

New Little Birds Arrive in the Yard

April 22, 2014

This morning I woke up fairly early but did not try to go to the gym.  I am going to try for every other day for now.  I got dressed and ready to go to work pretty quickly and then sat at the computer a bit and looked out the window when the light was good in the yard and there were four little birds on the waterfall.  Just yesterday I had told someone that I had heard that some birders were thinking most of the migrating birds by-passed us and went straight home (north).  This morning proved those folks to be wrong.

What a delight it is for me to find a new variety in my yard.  Sometimes it may be a bird I have seen at the island or another place, just not in my yard.  This morning there was a Blue Grosbeak on the waterfall.  I had seen my first one at South Padre Island last year.  He is a beautiful bird.  My photos don't do him justice.  He, like the warblers with him, love to play in the waterfall and take baths in the small indentations in the rocks that create shallow pools.  The way the waterfall currently is flowing, there is one spot where the water is rather forceful for a little bird, but they love to get under it and almost seem to get knocked to the next lower level, but they get right back under it.  So funny.

Besides this beautiful Blue Grosbeak, there were three other birds hopping in and out of the water.  There was a Nashville Warbler and two what I think are Tennessee Warblers. 

I had told Ron I would be at the office by 10:00.  Wrong!  I called my brother-in-law and he brought his camera and tried to get warbler photos, but the warblers had gone into hiding.  Instead, he spent time photographing the woodpeckers.  he is liking my wonderful sewing room view of the woodpecker hole in the tree.  This morning the male and female kept switching places in the nest.

These little Tennessee Warblers are so very fast!  It is a real challenge to photograph them!  But it is worth it when I get a clear shot of them.  Our God is so awesome in His creativity of these tiny birds that fly long distances to avoid the snow and ice in the northern winters.

Here is one of them beside the strong portion of the waterfall.  They look so playful.  This evening I ran some errands after work so I was a little late getting home.  The only thing I saw on the waterfall was the Louisiana Waterthrush from yesterday and I couldn't get a photo of him.  I am always glad to know they are still around.

 
Signs of spring are all around us.  The plants are in full bloom, the birds are migrating and nesting, the trees are a wide variety of shades of green, and it is warming up.

Back to this morning.  I had texted Ron and told him I would be later than planned and he said to enjoy the birds.  Once I got to the office, he left on jobs for most of the rest of the day.  I got a few things done.

At work, I had trouble hearing customers if there were others in the office carrying on  conversations. I told Ron it seemed like the sound processor picked up all conversations at the same volume and the person right across from me would be drowned out by a conversation across the showroom.  I did have to answer the phone at the office a couple of times.  Ron normally has all calls forwarded to his cell phone, but for some reason today didn't.  So while I was there and he wasn't, I had to answer a couple of calls.  Thankfully they were regular customers who knew I had trouble hearing.

During the evening I talked to our youngest son and he had to repeat things often.  It is always good to talk to my kids.