We Are Friends

   Living around the marshes and swamps, you become quite familiar with many of the critters that dwell there.  Some are best left to their own accord but others seem to crave attention...any attention that you give them.  The relationships that I share with the critters happen to be some of my favorites.  I have often said that I have more critter friends than people friends and that I prefer it that way.  Critters don't do unnecessary drama.  They are there merely to survive the best way they know how.  They do not have time to stir up unwarranted trouble.  I like that.  It is too bad that people are not more like that.

  Along about daybreak, if I am not on the pier, I am in the gardens.  Either place gives me the perfect opportunity to be with my friends.  This morning, the trek to the pier was only long enough to photograph the big, full moon.  The Corn Moon was still high in the sky at 5 am!  Once I photographed it, I headed back to the Small Gardens as I felt that I have been neglecting those critters.  After filling the bird feeders and putting out fresh water, I settled in the big wicker chair.  My quiet time was to be in the gardens this morning.  Quiet??  Nope, there were several frogs still serenading in the small Puddle Pond.  Their "music" was just loud enough to be heard at the other end of the garden plot.  I was, however, serenaded by another sweet friend.  Every morning, Mama Wren still calls to her young.  One by one, they come to her, converse a bit then head off to start their foraging.  It is almost like she is doing roll call!  

  Mama Wren took up the checking station on the dead black gum tree.  The tree is nothing more than a tall stump with a scraggly mess of limbs now but it is the perfect meeting spot for the wrens.  They are still close enough to their childhood home of the porch arbor to be familiar with their surroundings but the tangled limbs give them protection from the marauding hawks.  After checking in with four of her five "teenagers", she flew down to sit on the arm of the chair next to me.  Yes, I did talk with her.  I always do.  We are friends.