Mom's Day

Someone once said that the term "working mother" is redundant. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in the world.

The struggle is real…..

 

WWJD

I don't know what variety of Christian church Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth frequents, but I've read Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, commonly called the Beatitudes (New Testament, Matthew 5:9) where Jesus says: "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."  Nowhere in the Beatitudes does Jesus praise Hegseth's hyper masculine death-dealing Christian knights of vengeance. 

There are many situations in the New Testament where Jesus eschews violence, including when he is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Nevertheless, none of this comes as a great surprise; if you follow the polling as I do MAGA World overwhelmingly likes war. 

And I'm not ashamed to share that I pray daily for deliverance from the war.   

Sunset

Good look’n sunset tonight. 

Shot an azimuth to record Old Sol’s relentless march north. 

Love me some spring…..

 

Mom's Day

Tomorrow we celebrate our mothers.  Why, you ask?  Probably because we all have one.  And they are celebrated for nurturing, protecting, teaching and launching us into adulthood.

Almost 100 years ago this photo was snapped of my mom during a stay at the family cottage somewhere on the Fox River.  There was a critter involved.

Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.... 

 

The Return Of The Oriole Cam

Last Monday I could’ve sworn I spied an orchard oriole. 

And on Tuesday morning the Missus spotted three male Orioles quarreling over the humming bird feed she had recently deployed.

I spotted some rose-breasted grosbeaks in the yard along with the white-crowned sparrows passing-thru on their way to Canada.  Consequently, we put out three additional feeders and I moved the rickety-old trail camera previously used to monitor the peanut feeder to a post on the west side of the porch. 

The oriole cam has been deployed.  

 

 

And a couple of the first photos uploaded yesterday....

 

 

 

Close call

When we go for our walk as a general rule I am accompanied by two sidekicks; my four-legged red golden retriever and one on my hip.

From yesterday morning there was this. 

 
In pretty short order doggo was put on a down stay; and I steadied my sidearm against the trunk of an oak. 

Mr. Browning Buck Mark barked twice.

Stinky encounter (and theoretically a bad start to the day) averted. 

No skunks were hurt in the encounter.

Close call.... 

The Bluebird Of Happiness

Among the regular harbingers of spring is the return of the Redwing Blackbird, the American robin and the eastern bluebird.  One of our favorites is the bluebird and some have suggested they've been seemingly scarcer the past couple of years; we have two confirmed next boxes occupied by this species. 

The notion of the bluebird of happiness has its roots in French folklore and comes from the delightful feeling associated with the sighting of one of these birds with the faded rusty breast, white belly and blue back and tail. They're a flash of color in an otherwise brown and dreary springtime world. They’re fond of perching on the top of a post, tree or garden rake leaning on the fence and surveying their domain.  

WI.DNR.Gov

 

Meet Sialia sialis - the Eastern bluebird.  These are cavity-nesting birds and only a couple of human generations ago their numbers were in serious decline in this country as a consequence of limited nesting habitat.  They’re more common nowadays because us people have mobilized in the face of that decline and assembled and installed nest boxes for them. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of similarly-minded bird enthusiasts and you get the drift.  More cavities – more birds.  

 

 

Most of the time house wrens and tree sparrows nest in our boxes which is just fine.  They make for good tenants.  When I was out turkey hunting at the end of last month I spotted a pair of birds checking-out the nest box above.  

 

Within a week they decided to take-up housekeeping and constructed a nest.

 

 

Then earlier this week I was out installing a nest box that needed a minor repair and figured I check on my feathered friends for a progress report.

 

So far, so good.

 

We’re about to become grandparents again.   

An interesting factoid about the eastern bluebird is that the young of the first brood assist in raising the young of the second brood.   

 

Good parenting skills the bluebird has.