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Monday, October 24, 2011

Big surprise!

I arrived at my oasis yesterday morning and have hauled 1500 gallons (5 loads) of water since then. I was really down in the dumps. Felt like it was an exercise in futility, while my granddaughter and her husband are suffering financially, and here I am buying water with money that could be easing their financial situation. Admittedly, in the past giving them money hasn't helped, but in theory, and all.

Since yesterday morning I hadn't seen a bird that inspired me to photograph it. Just because I wanted to photograph something I took pictures of some of the Hermit Thrushes running all over the place.


But I've taken so many Hermit Thrush photos that I found it boring and wasn't cheered up at all. So I figured if I got an extra load of water and sprinkled it extravagantly on the trees as birds played in it, that might cheer me up. I got back with the water around 4 PM, set the sprinkler, and sat contemplating.


I thought about how every day something exciting happens here and it's been two boring days of hard work. It even occurred to me that every time I get discouraged, something exciting happens and I get all recharged again. I knew it was late in the day and nothing like that was going to happen. The sprinkler wasn't cheering me up. Since I have a hard time sitting still when I constantly see work that needs doing, I started to take down dirty hummingbird feeders. As I approached one hanging beside the shade water feature, I saw a tiny reddish bird scoot into the brush. Before long I got a good look at it, and knew immediately it was a Winter Wren, even though I'd never seen one before, and had thought they were gray, not reddish.



Now you see why I keep on keepin' on!


5 comments:

  1. Yes, there are many harbingers of Hope that seem to greet us just when we need it most. When you miss posting a day or two or three I always(and others, I presume)wonder what's happening at the oasis or in Alpine! I have been wanting to see a catbird after seeing photos because it had been 29 years since I saw one when I stayed in Oklahoma when my daughter was a baby. Sure enough I spotted one at the Dallas Arboretum on Sunday. Needless to say, I was thrilled!

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  2. Thank you both! It was weird how only a few minutes had passed after I had been thinking how whenever I get despondent something exciting happens, and then mere moments later, it happened. And so super exciting, at that! Too coincidental. It has to be a sign.

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  3. Now you get to decide if you got your lifer Winter Wren or your lifer Pacific Wren. Either way, congratulations on a nice find.
    BTW, I'm voting for Pacific Wren on this bird.

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  4. Thank you. I had also thought that it's a Pacific Wren, but Kelly Bryan saw my photos and even saw the bird today and he says it's definitely a Winter Wren (not Pacific). He's the expert, so I'm going with that.

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