Best Birding Season Ever

Our family has long enjoyed backyard birding. It is an activity that the whole family follows. I love that my boys are growing up enjoying this activity with us. They are getting better and better about being able to identify the birds that are regular visitors in our backyard and common birds in our area.

Brett has built a number of bird houses over the years, and always cleans them out, fixes them up, or replaces them as necessary each spring. This year Brett was surprised to find that two of our houses were already inhabited by flying squirrels. Though not birds, we do enjoy watching the flying squirrels when they visit our feeders. Brett is always the one to discover when they come. He will hear them when he is out working in the garage after work. It is fun to take a few quiet minutes watching them glide from one tree to another and find their way to the feeder.

We have three tray feeders, one of which is on the outside window sill of our kitchen window. We also have two hanging feeders right outside the kitchen window. The boys are looking forward to putting up the hummingbird feeder. In the middle of the summer they are pretty much guaranteed to see the hummingbirds come to the feeder while they are eating breakfast--and lunch or dinner, for that matter. We always see the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, but I'm pretty sure I saw an Allen's Hummingbird last year!

This winter/early spring has been one of the best backyard bird-watching seasons for our family. It started with a brown-headed nuthatch who came to our feeders before Christmas. We have been thrilled that a pair of them stuck around all winter and are still here this spring.

We have had our usual visitors: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird (a few times this year--we'll see them more regularly soon), American Robin (they've moved on already), Mocking Bird, Brown Thrasher (at the feeder, even!), Northern Cardinal (or a "Red Jay" as one of my students called it, much to our amusement), Chipping Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch (more this winter than ever before), and House Finch.

We had a surprise visitor during a rainstorm this weekend. We have heard the Northern Bobwhite before, but this was the first time what we actually saw one--and on our back porch, no less, around 5:00pm. We assume he was trying to get out of the rain. I had to leave the house, but Brett said he hung out for at least an hour before moving on. We also saw him the next morning in and out of the bushes in the front of the house.

One of the most exciting visitors for me has been a pair of Indigo Buntings that showed up last weekend, and have been back to visit every day since. They are a beautiful blue.

We have also had some occasional sightings of a Mississippi Kite, Belted Kingfisher, Pileated Woodpecker, and a Rufous-sided Towhee (also this weekend).

Around town we regularly see: Osprey, Herons/Egrets (I especially love seeing a roost of Snowy Egrets in the middle of town off the main highway), and Wild Turkey (especially in the spray field).

Bonus sightings around town within the last month: a great view of a beautiful Swallow-tailed Kite (in Creekside), two Bald Eagles (White Point Rd. and Mossy Head), and a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers (Bluewater marina).

Post Note: Immediately after publishing this post, I walked over to the kitchen sink and saw a Mississippi Kite perched on the corner of my neighbor's chain link fence. Awesome!

For Brett, From Becca (5/4/12)

This week has flown by for me. We continue our day-to-day routine. This week has been busy with field day activities for the boys. Todd was able to participate on two different days: once for third grade and once for fourth grade. Both boys participated individually in the hurdles. Todd got first place in the Third Grade boys race and Ryan got second place in the First Grade boys race. All of the classes were very competitive when it came to the Tug-of-War. That is my favorite event to watch. The three-legged race has always been favorite event to participate in, and I was pleased that both of the boys let me race with them during the parent participation portion of field day. I would even say that we did a pretty great job (except when Todd paused to say to hi to his spectator brother and friends when we were turning back around).

Ryan begged me to check him out of school after field day today. Many parents check their kids out. About half his class was gone. But I had things that I wanted to do at home. And I honestly think those low-work days when half the class is gone are some of the best. Ryan came home off the bus so cheerful and happy. He clearly had fun this afternoon. It made me feel good to hear him say, "Thanks for not checking me out from school." They celebrated Cinco de Mayo with some snacks and got to watch a movie. I am sure he wouldn't have had so much fun at home.

I enjoyed meeting with Todd's teacher about completing the Fourth Grade math book this summer. It may mean more work for me keeping up with his assignments and tests and encouraging him to continue to make progress. But what else will I be doing? I am also going to try to keep the boys reading this summer. They usually do a good job, but being away from home we will have to make a point to plan reading time into our activities. Vacations are great, but I don't want them to regress too much. And it would be great if they could advance even a little.

I finally had to turn on the air conditioner this week. I held off for as long as I could. There are some times of day when it's not so bad, but it's getting humid also. Today was especially humid. The sun wasn't so strong during Ryan's field day, but it was so humid that I still felt like I was melting.

We had a bit of a downpour last night. I had already been thinking it was time to check the gutters again, and last night confirmed it. Actually, last night I realized that I should have checked the gutters last week. I will work on cleaning them out this weekend. It will be a new experience for me.
Besides being here to clean out gutters and do all the rest of the outdoor maintenance, I also miss being able to call on you to be my bug killer. I had to kill a cockroach last week in the bathroom. I'm sure it would have been very funny to any onlookers. Although, if there were anyone around watching (and laughing) I am sure I would have enlisted their help.

The sago palm is starting to look kind of freaky in an almost obscene way. I'll post a picture later. I'm sorry if you are disappointed about it splitting.

Yesterday the boys and I finally reached our goal of reading scriptures 20 days in a row (110 days this year). We almost didn't make it a couple of times, but we were determined to succeed. We've only reached 20 days in a row once before. We reached our 10 days in a row goal twice before, and I rewarded the boys with a Dairy Queen trip. This time I told the boys they had to reach 20 days before they could earn their DQ trip. If we make it to 25 days in a row they will earn a movie night. On our way for ice cream yesterday I remembered the new frozen yogurt store, Top This. The boys were excited about trying it. It was not as "heavy" as DQ and the boys got to pick out their own toppings. It totally hit the spot.

I made some lentil soup this week. It was so delicious. Ryan loved it too. I will definitely be making it again. Do you think you would eat it? I also made kale chips. They kind of taste like a broccoli, but are light and crispy and almost disintegrate in your mouth. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

Copper ran off on me again this morning even though he got a nice golf course run last night. This is the first time he has run off when I let him out for his morning pee before school. He didn't even wait for us to take him to the bus. I was scrambling to get the boys ready for school and I was trying to get myself ready to attend field day. I couldn't start looking for him until after I got the boys on the bus. I drove around the usual streets with no luck. I asked Mark if he could keep an eye out for Copper while I was at field day, but I decided to stop by the house again. I was just in time to receive a phone call from a woman on Kildare who found him. I don't know what he was doing over there or what prompted him to leave this morning.

I picked up a German book from Goodwill about two weeks ago. I've been flipping through it from time to time. I would love to be able to teach myself enough German to be able to get by on my next trip (2013??).

I'm happy to hear that you seem to be doing a little better on the trail. I really don't want you to give up. I think it you can just get through Virginia it will be a little easier. I'm so proud of you!