Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A Bird in Hand, so to speak :-)

Our remodeling crew had a snow day today after an ~10 inch snowfall yesterday. After getting both our home and the farm plowed out and shoveled (my husband and I both felt like we needed naps by 10 AM!), we decided today would be a good day to head back out to the farm to do tedious work like stripping wallpaper and applying waterproofing stuff to the basement walls without being in the way of our crew of skilled craftsmen.

Taking a break, I looked out of the kitchen window to see for the second time a very large all white bird fly through the open area of the SW portion of our property. I "flew" to the other end of the house to look out the windows to see if I could get another view of this bird to make an ID. Nope - no luck again. I look for it every single time that Kaya and I walk the land, but so far, I have not made an ID. Whatever it is would be very exciting - it is clearly not one of the red-tail hawks that are common here, even at this time of year.

However, while zipping through the house to get a better view of my white mystery bird through the windows at the far west end of the house, I glanced out a south-facing window to see movement in a tree close by the house. So, after rapidly assessing that no big white mystery bird was going to pose for me to make an easy ID, I quickly ran back to the bedroom window facing south to see what the movement was and if it was still there (hope hope!).

Aha! five (5!! instead of one like I recently saw and posted about) male Eastern bluebirds, plain as day, and as beautiful as can be, close-up to see all their feathers and contrasting colors. They were alternating between posing and then dropping down out of sight to an area close to the house that could be seen from our walk-out basement, back to the tree, then flying farther out into the yard where I could now see a new puddle.

So I ran for my camera, ran downstairs to the basement, picked my way through all the construction stuff, glad the work crew was not there to shove aside!, told Dick about the excitement, then ran back up the stairs trying to get the best view of these moving targets (birds never sit still in contrast to plants!), realizing all the windows were filthy and/or had screens, oh no! any photos will be awful, back through construction zone trying for a better view trying not to trip on all this stuff, trying not to step on Kaya, trying to zoom in with the camera on the run, what an event! So what you see is "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush". My big white bird will just have to come back sometime when I am outside to see it, follow it, and get that ID, and someday I'll be outside with my camera to get better pix of our bluebirds, too. :-)

(Photo: 3 of the 5 male Eastern bluebirds outside our bedroom window; one at ~7 o'clock, 1 at ~8 o'clock, and the third one at ~10 o'clock, which is hard to see)

(Photo: zoom close-up to see one male Eastern bluebird sitting out by the more distant puddle where our sump pump was dumping water this afternoon)

(Photo: Construction zone in the basement I had to navigate to see the bluebirds at the puddle closest to the house. Note the great (!!) windows facing south that will be used for growing lots and lots of plants as soon as we move in.)

(Photo: Bedroom construction zone I had to navigate to see the bluebirds in the tree outside this window - this wallpaper (flying angels) will be coming down. Thankfully, it is only a border.)

(Photo: Living room/dining room construction zone - 4 walls of wallpaper and a very well stuck border (complete with mildew behind much of the border) in the process of coming down. Note: Kaya supervising on her pillow.)

(Photo: Garlic field under a snowy blanket.)

(Photo: the field to the SW of our house where twice I have seen the big white bird flying through, both times in the early afternoon, flying from east to west ~ 15 feet off the ground just this side of the shrub/second growth line.)

(Photo: Snowballs on the spruce tree - I wonder if today's high winds rounded off the snow on the branches from yesterday's snowfall.)

(Photo: Kaya - what's down there??!! I tried and tried to get a pix of her snowy nose and ears without success this time.)

(Photo: Kaya up to her knees and shoulders, as happy as can be. Tonight she'll probably pay for all this hard exertion with her lame back legs. I hope we don't have to carry her upstairs for bed.)

Actually I never did nap today, and now I am wondering if I'll need to be carried upstairs, too (just kidding!). :-) :-)

"Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row"

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

4 comments:

Kateri said...

The house looks like it will be beautiful when it is done. I can never get decent photos of birds either. So exciting that you have a little flock of blue birds. And even more exciting that you are officially farmers!

Cynthia said...

What food should I put out to entice some blue birds?

Uncharted Journey said...

Your energy amazes me !!
And your enthusiasm is nourishing!
Elizabeth

lookinout said...

Your enthusiasm is infectious. Wonderful!
Gillian