Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.
Being out camping makes it easy to talk about two of the best gifts I’ve ever received, and share my famous/endless nature photos with y’all, too.
I talked about this back when I got it, but I’ll repeat that my bird journal is a gift that means a lot to me. The amount of time my husband put into designing the format, finding hundreds of bird pictures, printing the book, then binding it himself was considerable! It’s not just a journal for writing down my sightings, but it’s also made just for me. I use it daily and am reminded of all the kindness deep within Lee’s hermit heart.
The other gift I’ve appreciated a lot is the opportunity to be out in nature so much since we got this motorhome. It’s helped keep me mentally and physically healthy. Lee drives me quite cheerfully and is fine when I go away for over three hours looking at plants and birds. He also kindly drives me to horse events, which are another element of my sanity.
I may have overdone it today, since my stomach has been unhappy and hiking the entire equestrian trail probably didn’t help it. But I lived.
The trail was worth it, with interesting sights I didn’t expect. The part of the park I was in today has much more varied microclimates, and there was evidence of a controlled burn not too long ago. I could also see that a lot of brush had been cut back, perhaps to create more prairie areas.
The fire may also help in another way. I was charmed to realize I’d walked into a pine forest. It’s apparently cut off from the piney woods, like lost pines near Austin. The fire may encourage more young pine trees. They are needed, because many of the pines I saw were quite old. They were just beautiful.
I managed to see and hear more birds today. Many were by water, including the pond shown at the top of this post. I heard a belted kingfisher go on and on, along with four woodpeckers and many small birds. At one point I saw a downy and red-bellied woodpecker on the same tree! Near there I flushed an owl, which was another fun surprise. All my sightings went into Merlin, because they are tallied as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count. I’m happy to participate in this!
I did run into a few folks on the trail, two sets with unleashed dogs, and three horse groups. I was able to warn two groups of a tree that was blocking the path. The third group was four Mexican-American men with authentic outfits, great hats, and excellent cowboy hats. Their horses were fancy as they were, too.
It was a lot of fun, even with a stomach ache. I did take it easy the rest of the day. We watched The Big Year, which is still very funny, and I was impressed by how much more I understood about the bird content than I did when the movie came out. It’s funny even for non birders.
Now to get ready to work in the morning then drive home. I’m glad I can work in the evening to make up for the drive time. Of course, it’s nice and warm here starting tomorrow. But it will be warm at home, so I can horse around.
The Hermits' Rest 