"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others
belong to us as well."
Yesterday Maggie went to the groomer's and got all gussied up. When we came home she did her usual ritual of going outside to get some fresh air. She was fixated on something. She sat there and watched. It took me a few minutes to catch on. She was watching a Stellar's Jay on a close by branch of the tree. SO CLOSE. I ran inside to get the Canon camera. I pointed at the bird and went to shoot. WHAT? No battery power? How can that be? I recharged the battery. Holy cow! I had taken the battery out of the camera! Omigosh! I ran back in the house and loaded the battery into the camera. In my flurry I bumped the settings on the camera. Holy mackerel-now the camera didn't perform like I wanted it to.... Meanwhile, the Stellar's Jay went higher up on the tree branches. Point: click, click, click...
Maggie and I were fixated on this bird. Then the bird chirped loudly, not really a chirp, but a big sound as if he was calling another bird. DANGER! DANGER! Sure enough Maggie and I found his partner across the tree branches, higher up than he.
Last year about this time Maggie and I marveled at the Stellar's Jay nest up in our tree. We took photos on our iPhone and posted them. This nest remained in our tree all year long throughout all the wind and rain storms. I imagine the birds have just remodeled some to shore up the walls. Inside the nest might lay eggs or chicks from these Stellar's Jay birds. Maggie and I were lucky enough to appreciate the beauty of life up in the trees, right in our own backyard. Most excellent-the beauty of our backyard birds experienced by us. WOOF WOOF
