Where have I been, you might be asking? Seriously though, you probably stopped wondering that a few months ago. Once again, I don't have any reasons for not being here that adequately explain hiding from doing this thing that I love. I was not on a book tour, so if you had that guess in the pool, I apologize for your loss and hope you didn't bet much.
A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I were talking over dinner. (We have to do that now to drown out the silence of our empty nest.) When I was done yammering on about whatever my chosen topic was for the evening - you know something like complaints pair well with tacos, hot takes go with poultry and general updates are best with Italian - my husband said "That could all be a blog topic!" While I agreed with him, I also moaned about the fact that I would have to write it, which also meant I would have to slow my spiraling, possibly even sit down to do so...and I didn't.
Instead of getting my writing act back together, I opted for doing some reading. Not sure why reading and writing are mutually exclusive in my mind, nor when some of my favorite pasttimes became such a chore for me. Maybe we can delve into that another time. Sheesh!
So what's the scoop? Need a hint? How about SWOOP? Last week I was admiring one of the floral plantings on our front porch when I noticed some bird poop on the ridge of the pot. I don't want to sound like a complete lunatic, but I had an inkling that his particular poop looked familiar. I did not want to set of any alarms, or believe the suspicion I had, so I just sort of spun the planter around. Problem solved.
There we were, relaxing on the porch yesterday, when something swooped past the corner of the porch, the very same corner where those flowers I had been admiring happen to be. Oh. No. He/She flew around, but did not fly away. Nope, just sort of darted around to tell the friends who were waiting up on the edge of the roof. I acted far too quickly to get a photo for you! I flung my book down, after carefully placing my bookmark obviously, and grabbed the roll of tin foil from the cabinet on the porch. (Yes, I keep it right there for emergencies.) It was go time! We may have been spared last year, but those birds just cannot quit us.
UGH!
It's just so unattractive! At least during this phase it can't really be seen from the road. The neighbors knew though, I know they saw me on that ladder waving my foil around and knew it was officially spring. Of course the wind has kicked up a few times since yesterday afternoon which threatens to tear the thin tin from my hastily jabbed push pins. That is when things get really ugly with flapping and aluminum crinkling sounds, but you know what we don't have? The swoopers and poopers.
I feel like I should mention how much we enjoy birdwatching, and our (ok, my) ire is directed at this one specific type of bird. Well, actually, right now my husband is feeling rather antagonistic towards the European starlings that keep devouring the bird seed he is trying to feed more glamorous birds. Speaking of more glamorous birds, here are just a couple of screenshots of the Merlin app telling us what birds we were hearing on our encounters with nature...
...we saw robins and red-winged blackbirds. That is all! My birding friend told me that she sees 10% of what she hears, but I don't think we are even doing close to that well. I just wasn't prepared for this level of defeat when I downoaded the app. Before now I could pretend that I was just hearing one or two birds with different "voices." Obviously the barn swallows were trying deperately to fill a void they sensed we had. The also must have gotten word that we had a surplus of tin foil! They are so damn creepy.
