EXPLORING

 

I posted this earlier in the month. Got the shot through the front window. Had two in the dogwood this morning.

 

Got one of my wishes today. We did some yard work early this morning. Took out the elder bush. It was just too big for our yard. Not only too big, but too enthusiastic. You can trim this bush in the fall and when it starts growing in the spring it takes off like crazy. Neither one of us could cope with pruning a shrub every year that produces a small pick up bed of trimmings every year, for one bush. So the elder is no more and we’ll put in much smaller replacements. I'll admit I felt bad about taking down a perfectly good, healthy shrub, but it just didn't work for our yard. The space looks so much larger with it gone. We've learned a lot in the last three and half years.

 

But, that wasn’t the wish I was talking about. We were done before 9:30 (and I started at 8:30, surprised the heck out of me that it took less than an hour) this morning and it was really quiet right then in the neighborhood, except for the birds singing, chirping, and flitting around. Realized that there was not one towhee but two checking out the dogwood. Didn’t even bother trying to get my camera. It would have been too hard to see the birds anyway. Anyway, they spent about ten minutes working through the tree and checking out the ground below it. Then they took off back to hill behind the house. They’re ground and bush feeders and it’s taken almost four years to tempt them to the front yard. The first visit of many I hope.