Colorful Sunrise

The other morning, while getting my grandson off to school, I had to grab my camera and get this picture of the sunrise. I had never seen so many colors in the sky at the same time. It was a true colorful sunrise.

Only God can create something so beautiful. It lifted my spirit. I do not need drugs, alcohol or any other devices to help me through hard times. I just need God.

With each waking hour, I just have to look to the sky. Morning, noon or night, I can see the beauty that can only come from a loving Creator. Even in the mist of the storms, there is a colorful rainbow to follow.

This colorful sunrise helped me have a great start to a great day.

Three Parks

From the phone call last night, I found out that I did not have to report for jury duty. This made me quite happy, because I had the whole day to spent checking out parks. My husband came along for the ride.

First, we went to Swan Harbor Farm in hopes of finding the meadow lark that others have been posting on the MD's birding site. No luck. Did see a few eastern blue bird, sparrows and Canada geese.

Next, we went to the Susquehanna Sate Park. Geese, ducks and this cute little guy was all we saw there.

The third place we went was, Marshy Point Nature Center. I love this place. Yet, once again we stuck out. There just did not seemed to be life out there. Just some chickadees, sparrows and the sounds of hawks.

I could say that it was a disappointing day. But, the truth is, it was a great day. I was not in any kind of rush. The morning started with breakfast with two good friends and than spending the time with my husband on a beautiful sunny day.

Three parks and spending time with three great people, what more could I ask for?

The Turkey Round Up

Today, as I made my way into the Mariner, I noticed that there was an animal control van parked by the curb. I wonder what in the world would they be after. Before I could park, I could see that it was a turkey. The turkey round up was on.

It turned out that this one was the last surviving turkey out of the four that were released into the parks several weeks ago. They have been dying off one by one. The third one wad found dead last night.

The animal control was there to catch this turkey to save her life. One she was caught, she would be taken to the Humane Society to be nurse to health and then giving to new home where she can thrive.

I will miss seeing them. The park was not a place for them, since they were too tames. This was why the local foxes were able to catch at least one, to my knowledge. It does do my heart good to know that this last one has a fighting chance to live a long life.

The turkey round up was fun to watch. Now she is safe and can move on to better pasture.

Keeping Warm

The past two days it has been colder than usual in the morning. So, this morning I checked the thermostat. There was a problem. It was not showing any temperature. It was than I realized that it was not working at all.

 I got my grandson off to school, took my morning walk and came home. I called the oil company to see if they could come out to fix the furnace. In the mean time, I took out my heaters and placed them around the room to stay warm.

Apparently my cat was just as cold as me. He came out of hiding to sit in front of the heater to stay warm. Keeping warm was the theme of the day for both of us.

Now, here come the shocker. It turns out that all that was wrong with the furnace was that the thermostat just needed new batteries. Who would have thought.

Now that everything is back to normal, the cat and I are enjoying keeping warm.

Gull Versus Wind

Today, the wind was blowing with a force to reckon with. Even the gulls had a hard time flying. I watch as the wind pushed the gulls backward as they tried to land on the water. It was funny, until the wind almost knocked me off the pier I was standing on.

There are many times in life that the winds of adversities seems to knock me down. No matter how hard I try to move forward, I am pushed backward. There are times that I even fall on my face.

When this happens, I think that it is a opportunity to grow.With the help of God, I find that if I hold my course, God gives me the strength to fly through the harshness of winds.

When I watched everything that was not batted down fly around me, I am secured in the knowledge that God keeps me grounded.

Tundra Swan Fly By

In my quest to reach the record of one of my birder friend of 113 species of birds in the Mariner, I was pleasantly surprise this morning. I was treated to a swan fly by. This makes number 103 in my count.

Ten more to go and I will tie the record of the previous count. Of course, I plan on going far beyond this. Who knows, I might make it to 200 by the end of the year. This is my goal.

One of the other treat of going to the Mariner everyday, is the many people I run into. I love the birds, but, I love getting to talk with the many interesting individuals who visit each day.

Today, a swan fly by. Tomorrow, maybe a new discovery. I will have to go and see.

Coming In

At the pond by the industrial park there are always Canada geese swimming around. At any one time you can count at least thirty to fifty geese. Thus day was very active. Geese were flying in and geese were flying out.

The funny thing about this activity is, that the geese seems to be careless about where they were landing. This one goose seems to be saying, "Watch out, I'm coming in." And coming in he did right on top of this group.

Do you know people like that? Whenever they enter a room, they seems to be saying, "Watch out, I'm coming in." Than the next thing you know, they disrupt everything around them.

I find out that it is best to give them room. In time, things will settle down and you can get back to business.

People come into you life everyday and they leave everyday. This is a fact of life. The trick to enduring the activity is to take it one day at a time, move over to give them room and enjoy them.

Turkey Stop

Today, I was going to beat my son recorded steps on his Fitbit. This would require me to walk around the Mariner four times.  But, there was a problem. As I enter into the park, I noticed a man taking pictures of something in the trees.

I made a pass by and could not see exactly what it was he was shooting. Then, he was using his phone to record something moving on the ground. I had to ask. "What are you recording?"

He pointed to the trees, "The turkeys."

I turned around, parked my car and got my camera. For the next hour I spent playing with four turkeys instead of doing my four rounds through the park.

The turkey stopped me from my goal of beating my son record. Yet, they helped me add to my goal of recording 113 different birds in the Mariner. I am now at 102.

Today, I was glad for the turkey stop.

Hawking

The other day, my husband took the day off from work. It was a beautiful morning and we decide to grab our cameras and head to the Mariner. Never in the four years that I have been keeping track of the birds at the park have I ever seen so any hawks in one place.

We started the hawk sighting with this red-tailed hawk sitting in a tree just outside the park. I got out of the car to try and get a better shot, he flew into the Mariner right on the parking lot. I jumped into the car and follow him. Slowly, I inched my way toward him, snapping all the way until he flew away.

But this was only the beginning. When we parked the car and got out, we looked up to see two red-shoulder hawks flying above us. There was a fly by of a northern harrier and a cooper soaring around the other hawks.

Add a pair of bald eagles along with three juveniles and we could not have been more happier to make this trip. It was a great day for hawking. My favorite though is this juvenile red-tailed.