Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Birds of a different feather


Yesterday evening when I headed to the kitchen to make my evening popcorn, I glanced out the window to see what I first thought was trash blown over from the neighbors... I'm used to seeing White Walmart bags strewn across our place on a windy day. On second glance, I realized the hayfield was being visited by Cattle Egrets. There were at least twenty-five of them, and they stayed for over an hour. I assume some bugs must have been stirred up when Cliff mowed, and they were having supper. What a treat! I would likely never have seen this sight living at the old house. You can click on the picture to make it larger.

I've been telling Cliff for weeks that I wish I had a couple of sweet potato plants. Just a couple, to play with (my whole garden this year is "to play with", really). I figure if I went somewhere to buy some, I'd have to buy a dozen or so. I remember how my mom made sweet potato slips, but it's a little late for that, I think.

Yesterday I decided to microwave a couple of sweet potatoes for our dinner, and I noticed one of them was sprouting on one end. So I cut off that end, stuck it in a dish of water, and am now waiting to see what happens. Looks like God gave me the couple of plants I wanted.

Life is just full of little gifts, isn't it?

*I first called the birds "snowy egrets". After a little conference with Dr. Google, I realized those are fairly rare. Further research informed me that these were the more common "Cattle Egrets", migrating through the area.

5 comments:

  1. We get a lot of those here. They like to follow the horses. I guess the horses grazing stir up bugs. But, their very favorite thing is when the guys mow the lawn... Remember that our 'lawn' is about 8 acres. They gather in droves. Still, my favorite is when 1 or 2 will pick 'their' horse and follow them around all day, sometimes even landing on their backs for a few moments. They are so pretty, white, and graceful in their movements.

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  2. We get sea gulls in the feilds here. They travel in from the lake some days and it looks just about like your yard there. Baked sweet potatoes are yummy. I hope you are successful planting yours.

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  3. I'm always amazed at those white birds sitting among the cattle and sometime on their back. We have a lot of them here at times.

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  4. What a beautiful sight! Thanks for sharing. My MIL has been the same thing with the sweet potato slips. She's going today to buy potting soil to fill a plastic trash can. One of hubby's propane customers told them how to plant them in the can..... Well see what happens...

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  5. Life IS good and gifts are great. I'm enjoying yours as much as mine.

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