January 15, 2016

Birds and Grandchildren

January 15, 2016

Snowy Egret

Our son Jeff and his wife asked if we could keep their seven children this weekend while they attended a marriage seminar on South Padre Island with a group from our church.  The only reason we had to think twice was to decide if we would keep them at our house or their house.  We decided on their house.  It turned out that they had several activities over the weekend and needed to be in their town instead of ours.

Things turned out well for us on this weekend out of town in that my sister was still staying at our house and took care of things for us at home.  Her husband flew down a day or two ago and joined her.  Now they are back at Mom's and left our house in great shape.

Friday morning before I went to the office for a couple of hours, my sister had commented that my yard was very quiet and she didn't see any birds.  I went out to fill the ponds and feeders and quickly spotted a Great Kiskadee.  By the time I got my camera, he had moved on and had been replaced in the same spot by a young Green Heron, soon to be chased off by a Snowy Egret. 

 Young Green Heron

After lunch, I drove to our son's home so that he and his wife could leave about 4:00.  Ron drove up later in the afternoon after the office closed. The children were playing outside when I arrived and had been getting a lot of exercise as they rode bikes, scooters, and assorted riding toys.  Our oldest granddaughter was going to feed the horse that lives in the field behind their house and I joined her to check on the horse. 

 Charlie the horse

 Our son and his wife left and I warmed the supper our daughter-inn-law had prepared for us to eat.  The children were all tired after a fun afternoon outside and went to bed without too much complaining.  Grandma and Grandpa were also pretty tired.

One of the cats the grandchildren have