The fall migration has begun. We’re got half a dozen hummingbirds visiting the feeders each day.
Four different kinds: the resident buff-bellied which are here all year, black-chinned, rufous, and ruby-throated. These would be the ruby-throated:
…for a walk in the park in town.
And the reason we’re in town is to see the dentist.
I preferred the park.
It’s still hot, but it has cooled a little. The daytime highs are now more like 95 than 100. It’s too hot to do much outside in the middle of the day, but know what I’m going to miss as the weather cools? Opening the door in the morning at 80 degrees. 80 degrees just feels so warm and comfortable when I open that door, having had the house at 65 degrees all night for a cool good night’s sleep under a down blanket. Stepping out onto the deck at 80 degrees is like being wrapped in a warm blanket or slipping into a warm bath. It feels so good out there in the morning and again in the evening when it drops below 90.
So, when the midday temperature is more comfortable, I’ll be missing that warm morning weather hug when I open the door.
It’s not that we were close. We were friendly acquaintances. But she was always there. She was a solid birding resource, working all over the valley protecting birds and habitat. Visible. Available. I could call her, and she would help me through difficult I.D.s, and with recording unusual sightings. We would run into each other out watching birds from time to time.
Then I heard she died. I didn’t even know about her health issues until after the fact.
This spring, I ran across this memorial at the National Butterfly Center. I wasn’t expecting it. I was just out for a walk to the river. It struck me out of the blue. It brought her right back to my thoughts. I’m glad it’s there.
I love the quote about why she spent the last ten years helping out the Butterfly Center as a volunteer:
“Because butterflies are good bird food.”
Her sense of humor.
Like a great-blue heron, but different.
It’s about half the size of a great blue.
And it’s not ubiquitous. It prefers coastal marshes in the southeast and along the gulf coast.
