I will say this about the weather on the Bayou, as of late. It has been windy! In fact, it has been windy and rainy for almost six months now. Only a few days each month are sunny. This is ok by me, however, as I am always up for a bit of rain. The wind goes along with it so I accept that as well. It is true that complaining about the weather has never changed it, so I say just go with what you are given. No problems.
While out behind the greenhouse this afternoon, a light swishing noise caught my attention. What in the world could that be?? It reminded me of a broom being used to clean the floor. Standing still, the sound led me to the source. Yep. It pretty much was a broom sweeping the floor. A branch of a yaupon shrub was being flung back and forth by the wind. As it was bouncing around, it was doing a fine job of sweeping the forest floor. A wide path was devoid of any fallen leaves!
The wind once was, at one time, a significant source of power for so many things but now has been replaced with more convenient methods. The sweeping motion of the branch brought thoughts of how windmills and sails make use of this free energy source. Folks used to use ingenuity and make use of what was on hand but those days have gone the wayside. Now, let there be one short power outage and people are in a tizzy. Sometimes, I think the times without all of our modern day conveniences was a lot better. We are all spoiled and perhaps a bit lazy. Maybe this branch was trying to tell me to get busy and rake the leaves.
When it rains, it pours. For the past month with the heat, we have been wishing for rain. The afternoon thunderstorms become a welcome treat even with the high winds, thunder and lightning. Now that the rains have started, they are nonstop. This makes me happy regardless that a few of the storms have been rather formidable.
Late yesterday afternoon, the winds picked up and lightning bounced around the Bayou like no body's business. Two more pine trees received powerful strikes which will most likely kill them. Then last night, I heard the telltale sound of wood creaking. Fearing that the tall pine that stands near the house might come tumbling down, I eased my way into the small entryway to peer out into the darkness. A lightning strike in the distance eased my thoughts of a tree falling on the house. The pine was swaying but not appearing to be breaking. About that time, another creak and a crash to the west of the Little Bayou House. The next lightning flash allowed me to see what appeared to be the top of a tree at the end of the lane. Well, at least it was not on the house!
This morning, I found that it was not the top of a tree but rather a huge hickory limb that had come crashing to the ground. Thankfully, it missed the power lines by a mere few feet! Ok, so that had to be removed. Tugging on the limb did nothing but tire me but it was not long before I heard the chug, chug, chug of a tractor. Thank goodness for brothers! My brother laughed at my lack of progress and informed me that it was times like these that tractors are useful. Within minutes, he had that half of tree moved and all was well. Until....creak, groan, creak....He and I looked up in a nearby pine tree. "Looks like we might be moving another branch tomorrow if this rain keeps up." he said. Yep, I do love a good storm but not as much as I do brothers!
Bad eyesight, broken spectacles and wildlife photography just do not go well together. I have a hard enough time seeing as it is but. as luck would have it, the lens popped out of my glasses today and. since then, things are just not right. My only choice was to reach for the reading glasses that I keep as a spare pair. I cannot see nearly as clearly but at least I could see enough to avoid stepping on a moccasin. Perhaps a good cleaning would have worked wonders but I was in a hurry to head back to the creek once again. Daily chores had eaten up most of the day and the sunlight was fast fading. I was in hopes of getting a few photographs of some of the Towhees that were nesting down under the palmettos before the sun set.
As I neared the spot that contained the nest, I saw another bird. This one, I did not recognize so I immediately stopped in my tracks and eased the camera into position. The bird froze. The shape seemed a bit off for any bird so small and of this hue but who am I to say. I know the local birds but perhaps this is still a migratory visitor to the Bayou. The bird was hunkered down beneath shrubbery so, after taking a few shots, I slowly sank to my knees. The bird did not budge an inch. Poor thing! It must be terrified of my presence. I took picture after picture. I had to identify this bird! Mental note...bird is small (about the size of a mockingbird), gray/green back, white throat, gray/green cap with a tuft of brown feathers as a crest, small eye. Ok, got it! Armed with that information and several dozen photographs, I should have no problem finding this bird in the reference books.
With the sun starting to slide down behind the pines and me being down in the creek, I knew it was time to head back up the hillside. There are too many critters that may not like my intrusion in their domain to linger much after dark. I stood. The bird stayed motionless. This was so strange. So strange, in fact, that I eased closer to see if the bird might be tangled in some way. Whoa! To my surprise, this was NOT a bird! In fact, I just spent a good half hour photographing a broken tree limb that was stuck in the ground. Ok...so it is time to get the regular glasses repaired.
Out of curiosity, I did a reverse image search on Google to just see what "they" thought the image was. Sure enough, "Best guess for this image: Bird"...I do not feel so bad now. If Google cannot get it right, how in the world am I supposed to identify it? So, there you have it! My bird for the day is none other than the lovely White-throated Gray Stick Bird! Nice find! Audubon would be proud!
