The eighth week after the vernal equinox, we got to take our weekly hike with my mom! (Not pictured: my mom.)
It was a sunny, warm, spring-like day, with many new things to enjoy.
There were ducks (before we scared them and they flew away).
There was a turtle (before we scared it and it jumped off the log and swam away).
Luckily, flowers and insects are more difficult to scare away.
Near the creek, we heard a birdsong we’d not heard before. I looked up and saw a bright orange bird singing high up in the trees. I couldn’t get a great shot of him with all of the branches crisscrossing between him and me, but here’s a glimpse:
I also got a recording of his song. It’s my first try posting an audio file, so we’ll see how this turns out:
There are several seconds of its short little call and then a bit of a song towards the end.
I call it an oriole song because although we’ve never seen one and the call doesn’t sound quite like the calls online, a Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) is all we can figure it is around here. If anyone has a better-informed guess, please share.
The only downside to the hike was that the kids got ahead of us while I was recording the birdsong. They must have been trucking because I had plenty of time to imagine scary scenarios before I finally caught up with them. They paused their animated conversation long enough for a brief apology (“We’re sorry, Mom. We meant to wait at the climbing rock, but we forgot.”) and then went back to the story they were making up together while we walked back to get Nana.
I suppose I should be happy they were getting along so well, but I can’t help feeling like they should take on at least a little of the anxiety I felt when I didn’t find them in the many spots I expected them to wait for me.
Imperfect Happiness 