Birds

Anslem and I go bird watching once in a while. We have a guide book and even though it doesn't show all the seasonal changes in plumage it is serviceable, as long as we keep looking in the same place over the course of a year. For instance, the avocet's black, white, and grey plumage is handsome. But for a short time each year the head is reddish. The guide book only shows the red head. It took a very long time before we found out that we were looking at avocets.

This morning we went to the Palo Alto Baylands , a wet land preserve. At one time all the land between Hwy 101 and the Bay, from San Francisco's Candlestick Point in the north to south of the Guadalupe River wetland. In fact, the wet lands extended far south along the banks of Coyote Creek. And the sky, according to early explorers was black with waterfowl, as the wetlands around San Francisco Bay and in the Santa Clara Valley were a major resting area for the avian set traveling along the Pacific Flyway.

So, back to my story. This morning, after dropping Cyndi (who I sometimes call Athanasia) at school (last day of the semester. She is geting straight A's.) we went to the Palo Alto Baylands. While we were there we saw several score Night Herons. WOW! what intense birds. They are all about finding little fish and frogs and skewering them on the dagger-like beaks. But this is hatching season. We saw dozens of hatchlings and anslem went around picking up egg shells. It was such a pleasant experience. We saw gosslings and ducklings, too. We also saw gulls fighting over a gosling's corpse. (Question: As Orthodox Christians, do we believe that birds are ever anything but a corpse?) Anselm said he no longer likes gulls.

Tonight after dinner we took Cyndi to the Baylands to see the Night Heron chicks. We got there just at sunset and had the pleasure of watching the adults leave their nests and roosts to hunt. We walked a little way beyond the trees where their colony was nesting to a dense stand of palms (They are not trees. They are very large grass.) where we saw Snowy Egret chicks.

We came home and ate watermellon. I read Chapter two of Prince Caspian to the boys while they took a bath and Cyndi cleaned the kitchen floor. They and Cyndi are in bed right now. I'm going to join them. Goodnight.