“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Saturday night while chatting with a friend, I realized that I had not seen a warbler this spring. And I vaguely remembered tossing a dead squirrel into my backyard.
Sunday morning I chose the woods over church. How many times did I stop my legs and move my eyes through the upper branches of the trees? If I had kept a list I would have seen over 30 species of birds; wonderful views of many including one of a Great Blue Heron that amazed me, however, no warblers were seen.
Later in the morning and in the afternoon, I went out to garden a few times. My yard is not huge and I have a sense of where the squirrel was tossed. Now I could have spent all my energy on finding the animal, but what sense would that have made.
So for now, I will have to have faith that there are still warblers in the world. As for the squirrel... I have faith that if it was still there I would have seen it. I will keep my eyes open for these unseen things.
...
Eww - on the squirrel. The walk in the forest sounds like fun. Did you have a guide or are you a birder? There are lots of Blue Herons around here - one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteHiking is one of my usual Mother's Day requests but it was iffy weather around here all day - bitter cold too. We substituted Scrabble.
Kathryn--- I guided myself. Been a birder for 30 years, but not so much since I started being a gardener. My rustiness came out in having to use my book to ID a Carolina Wren... at least I knew it was a wren. I kept imagining a human creating the same volume of noise for unit volume (space)
ReplyDeleteNo warblers for me either. But I did see a blue-gray gnatcatcher.
ReplyDeleteGannet Girl--- The one bird I was/am not sure of... I think I so wanted it to be a warbler that I did not immediately see it as a gnatcatcher???? Usually the tail is a dead give away though??? Do they have eye rings? I don't know. Nothing seems to match up with what I saw.
ReplyDeleteI do believe I saw a towhee, but it was the most uncooperative bird. A Green Heron was the opposite extreme. It sat still and unobstructed just a few feet from me.
Cool for what you saw!!
ReplyDeleteThe Warblers may all be in Ohio.... (See "Wildside's" latest post....)
Good luck Weds... ;-D
Giggles--- definitely cool. thanks for the best wishes.
ReplyDelete