Bluebirds of Happiness

by Pa Rock

Fool on a Mower

Family members and I returned from our hurried trip to North Carolina on May 3rd, just nineteen days ago, and in that time I have mowed much of my yard twice - and should complete the second mowing today.  That is quite a accomplishment considering that it has rained most of those nineteen days, a fact hat keeps me off of the mower while at the same time encourages the grass to grow even faster!

The has been one very wet spring!

In my spare time, those rare occasions when I am not on the mower or busy emptying the rain gauges, I am now caring for baby chicks.  I have several running loose in the enclosed brooder room in the henhouse, and a few more (baby guineas) still living in a cage.  Starting next week I will let them out into the penned-in area outside, and there they should be easier to care for.  I also have six eggs in the house percolating in an incubator, four should hatch on the 31st of May, and the other two on June 4th.

Then there are the birds in the wild, several of whom are almost pets.  Small black birds are building a next under the metal roof that sits just above the window where I type.  This is the second year in a row that they have chosen to homestead in that particular spot.  One just landed on the roof a few minutes ago with a grub worm in his beak that looked big and juicy enough to feed both parents and the christening party!

There is a female cardinal in the back yard who has developed an obsession with the other female cardinals that she has discovered living in the side mirrors on the car and pick-up.  She is constantly socializing by flying into her mirror-image in attempts to reach the other birds.  My fear is that she will eventually exhaust herself (or knock herself out) and then fall to the ground where she will immediately become cat food.

Robins are carnivores, and they love to follow me around as I mow - keeping their sharp eyes peeled fort things that the mower stirs up - like bugs, and grasshoppers, and the occasional worm.

I have a bluebird box out by the driveway that has lived up to its name and is home to a nesting pair of the beautiful little birds.  Papa Bluebird spends much of each day sunning on a plant hook that is twenty feet or so in front of my typing window, and he occasionally turns to chatter at me as I bang away relentlessly on the keyboard.  There are a lot of bluebirds this year - in spite of all the rain - and the cats - and they all seem deliriously happy with their lot in life.  

Bluebirds don't mow.  They have humans to do that for them.

We could learn a lot from bluebirds!