Walking out into the gardens this morning to pick blueberries for my guests, I encountered many wild things. It is crystal clear this morning ... so different from the misty dawn of yesterday, when I took the garden and Native Cherry serpentine dance with ghostly White Birch pictures above. There are about four or five hummingbirds dashing about... more zooming, diving and zinging... all in a tizzy about each other... great chase scenes. Two of the younger ones come right up to me within inches of my face, the tiny ones just hover in front of me, but my camera cannot focus and they are too quick for manual focus. I miss so many great shots this way. Walking pass the Viburnums I note all the activity in the red berries... Cedar Waxwings and Catbirds mostly. Then down to the blueberry bushes where I see a rabbit chomping clover. The rascal froze for a bit as rabbits tend to do, until my approach became too close and it quickly hopped away. I set about my task of uncovering one of the high bush blueberries and could hear the bluebirds calling out to one another. I have not seen the bluebirds in quite awhile, so I was thrilled to at least hear them again. I enjoyed the peace and quiet, of even my thoughts, while filling my containers with the tiny native blueberries.
A gentle breeze was singing up in the trees, when suddenly I noticed out the corner of my eye a movement low to the ground. A small silky slinky weasel was running playfully so it seemed, all over the area where I had just seen the rabbit... too bad I frightened that long eared, kale robbing, rodent away. The little weasel has brownish red fur with a white under belly and blackberry eyes, and was so quick I could not capture his image either, nonetheless, a joy being in its presence. One may think this a bit of a stretch, but the body of the weasel is a bit like the shape of the Native Cherry above ... only shrunken down to a few inches wide not twelve inches long.
We are finally having lovely summer days ... four in a row without rain! I will say, however, that all the many downpours have been greatly appreciated by the shruberies and striking sculptured trees. Yesterday afternoon I took the pictures seen above, of the Indigo Bunting family... father's feathers rich indigo blue, while mother is protected in her drab plumes... baby too is somewhat hidden from view with brownish gray hues. The parents are still busy hunting for food and caring for their young... as seen in the rather blurred dive of the male Indigo. August days... nights parade away now nearly the ninth.
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