More Birds

Tonight I got home late. I fed and watered the chickens and sat down to a good dinner of leftovers in front of the funny pages when I looked up to see birds on my deck. A hummingbird was drinking nectar and just a foot away, our indigo bunting was taking a bath. Oh, what beauty! We've named our indigo bunting. He's starting singing more than that territorial "tsch" sound we heard last year. Now he also sings a pretty song; a genuine Minneapolis song. With his song, his flashy and colorful appearance, and his metrosexual appeal, we've decided his name is Prince.

All this reminds me I didn't write about the bird trip on Saturday to the Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge. I had the special treat of being the only student who showed up to this extra field trip. The ratio of teachers to students was two to one. We three had a great time. We saw snipe (I've never seen one before-see photo), Redstarts, sandhill cranes, a blue winged warbler (another first for me), blue winged teal, coots, wood ducks, mallards, crows, bluebirds, tree swallows, green heron (another first for me), gold finches, blue jays, song sparrows, chipping sparrows, swamp sparrows, great blue heron, great egrets, and yellow rumped warblers.