Birds and more

We had been telling Michelangelo about the birds, and he was particularly interested to hear that we had pileated woodpeckers, a species he had never seen. Sure enough, one obliged by showing up the next morning during breakfast to perch on a nearby tree for a good viewing, returning later to eat at the feeder for closer examination.

Michelangelo's former wife lives in Alabama, and when they were still together down there, he heard the pileated sometimes referred to as the Lord God bird, because it would suddenly fly up in front of people and -- because of its size, color and sudden appearance -- elicit a startled, "Lord God!" from the victim. (I gather that the "real" Lord God bird is the elusive, possibly extinct, ivory-billed woodpecker pictured, similar in appearance to the pileated but even larger.)

This afternoon he and Tom visited the International Crane Foundation for more avian activity. I don't work at the railway on Wednesday, so I graded a couple of papers and took care of some correspondence with my students and the priest who is now in charge of the program for which I teach these classes. I attended a seminar he gave some years ago, and he was a fantastic teacher.

Late afternoon brought some showers, not enough to do any more damage, we hope. Tomorrow we are expecting some serious storms, however, so we are not out of the woods (or clouds) yet.

Meanwhile the wildflowers in the back have popped out more, lots of wild poppies now in pink, red and even orange. There are some beautiful deep blue flowers that I have not been able to identify. They look a bit like asters but the petals are more abundant and shorter. The irises in the front still are doing well, bt the rain and wind have been trying to beat them down. The bleeding hearts are overhanging the sidewalk, and daisies are blooming as well. If the weather ever gets decent, I will try to get another photo posted of the flowers along the front of the house.