Happy Monday

Mr. and Mrs. House Finch
Did you know that house finches sing for their supper? Well, they do. They sit on the feeder and sing in between bites. They are very musical. Here is a link to their SONG. Isn't it beautiful? I enjoy them very much.

Well, a wonderfully happy Monday to you. This past weekend was dreary, cold and rainy. Today the sun is brilliant in the sky and that alone makes me feel like dancing. I look forward to getting out into the front yard garden beds to do some much needed work. They have been neglected while my attention was on the backyard vegetable garden.

Normally, I post a menu for the week, but I haven't gotten around to figuring one out. I think that I will fly by the seat of my pants over the next few days. That may or may not be a great idea, but it's the best I can do right now.

If you are interested in checking out menus and recipes for the week, visit Laura's Blog at I'm An Organizing Junkie.

Have a great day!
Elizabeth

I Found Him!

Hello, Sweet Friends!

Well, I finally was able to identify the brightly-coloured bird with the orange tummy and the black and white wings who has recently been visiting my backyard feeders...He's the Black Headed Grosbeak! I found a wonderful online site, What Bird, that allows you to input a physical description of the bird and then based on that, you are given several types of birds to choose from. When I found the name of my little guy, I then went to utahbirds.org and pulled up a larger picture of him (see above) and his birdsong. Yep! That's him!!

Isn't he a jaunty little fellow? After looking at so many precious sparrows, finches, black birds, doves, etc., who are all more subtly coloured, the grosbeak is a happy addition to my little backyard world of birds. Don't you just love him?

Have a great day!
Elizabeth

Bird Rescue

I saved a little sparrow today, which was a very unexpected blessing.

I had been gone all morning and, on my return home, I went out back to turn the sprinkler on for my vegetable garden. Right as I poked my head outside of our sliding glass door, I realized there was a rukus going on over at the fence where I have my bird feeder. As soon as I was outside all the birds flew away, but I saw what appeared to be the body of a bird upside down on the fence by the feeder. I thought that the bird was dead. On closer inspection I saw that its foot was caught in between two boards of my fence. He was exhausted from trying to get away, poor thing. That's why he was hanging upside down. As soon as I tried to free him, he began flapping his wings, trying to get away from me. I was afraid I'd hurt him, but I tried to get him free. Nothing worked until I got the idea to get a kitchen knife and try to use it in between the boards to wedge his foot out. It worked!

The little sparrow did not stop to thank me, but burst into a flutter and flew away.

Whew! What a feeling of exhilaration to save that little bird. I'm so grateful that I came home in time, before the heat of the sun did it's work.

Anyway, this made my whole day!
Love,
Elizabeth