the right place at the right time

Today, I took the kids on our first outing to look for birds and we saw many birds and heard what seemed like thousands. Jove was most interested in the birds he could follow for awhile and were familiar like robins and red-winged blackbirds. Miranda was most interested in ducks and holding Jove's binoculars and pretending to look for birds.
We saw a large, reddish bird darting from the grass to the trees and it had a big patch of white feathers on its backside that were visible when it flew away. Just as it flew out of view, a car with park rangers in it pulled up beside us and said, "Did you see the Flicker?" I described what I had seen and they told me it is a flicker, which is an interesting woodpecker(the only one with a brown breast and the only one that eats on the ground). I hope a car full of rangers pulls up next to me the next time I see a bird I don't know.


I watched a pair of birds nesting in a bush and saw quite a few species I had never noticed before. Since it is the height of Spring migration and nest building, birds are everywhere. I am hooked. Jove and Miranda were very entertained being outside, Miranda with her dandelions and Jove with his earthworm castings.




When we were going into the backyard to eat pizza for dinner, I noticed what looked like a clump of eggs on my tomato plant. Jove and I looked closer and realized they were spiders emerging from their eggs. Over the next few minutes, many spider hatchlings started moving away from plant and spinning little strands of silk. It was amazing to watch. Jove says, "I've never seen this before in my life." Jup and I both tell him," Neither have we."