Here Birdy, Birdy, Birdy!

I woke up today with a desire to simply stay in bed.  My body is in a bit of a revolt, no doubt from volleyball, yoga, and tag with the kids.  But get up I must. 

I actually had a discussion with myself about how much TV I could let the boys watch without feeling guilty.  Then I opened the front door.

I am convinced that God put birds on this earth solely to tell us to get our rear ends outside and see what He has in store for us.

The birds were practically screaming at me when I opened that door.

So, without even bothering to change out of our PJ's, the boys and I threw on some shoes and headed out to play Hide-and-Seek with those birds.

You'd think that with the number of birds we heard, finding them would be no problem.  You would be wrong.  It took us an eternity to even find a dependable robin. 

So we took a break to do some pondering.

Cuckoo asked, "Why is my lawn mower wet?"

He wondered, "Might you be kind enough to tell me how you attained that height?"

And finally Turken wanted to know, "Why would God make, let alone someone plant, a tree with deadly thorns on it?"

We left the thorny tree to again look for the birds we could hear all around us.  Most especially a woodpecker hiding somewhere in this tree.

 We looked until our necks hurt and our eyes were watering, but no woodpecker.

We took another break to look at the flowers.

We went around to the back of the house, and Tada!!!

A bird!

Sure, it's a bird stealing a bit of the dog's food.  Nowhere near the natural habitat bird we were looking for, but a bird nonetheless.

In our joy, Turken forgot about the thorns, and we returned to the fallen tree to explore and ponder some more.

Things like, "How does grass grow in a dead tree?"

And, "Where are all of the birds that belong to all of these nests we see?"

And then we heard it again.  That woodpecker couldn't be far away.  I left the kids at the tree to track it down.  (Little boys aren't exactly good at sneeking up on a bird.  All bird activity stops when they try.)  I have no bird tracking skills, so I went in blind. Although I did discern that he was pecking at a dead limb.  I searched the treetop for the dead branches, and...

I found him!

In my excitement, I screamed for the boys.  Blasted bird few off in fright before the boys could even yell, "What?"

But that one sighting opened the aviary gates.

Birds were everywhere.  We saw the crows we'd heard cawing all morning. 

We saw birds with red heads.  Birds with shimmery feathers.  Birds perched way up on top of the barn.

The kids were so excited, they took turns doing happy dances on the cistern

and victory swings on the tree rope.

And while Turken was swinging, wouldn't you know that another woodpecker started pecking right above our heads.  Turken found in in seconds.

Can't say that my body feels any better after our two hours of bird-watching.  Actually, it's even a bit worse.  But my mood has improved beyond measure.

When those birds talk, listen.  They cannot tell a lie.

Have a lovely day!