HoundBlog

Felicia Cinco de Mayo! Or Happy May 6th. I hope you’re dancing the Mexican Hat dance or a Tango or something in honor of today. They aren’t in Mexico thanks to the H1N1 or Swine Flu.

And speaking of the flu – I hope you’re feeling fine and dandy too! Ken and I are both sniffling but it’s from all the pollen and has nothing to do with any viruses imported or domestic. Give us a few weeks and this will all be behind us.

I have a bird I’ve never seen before nesting on my back porch. After googling some, I found out that it’s a blue-grey gnat catcher and summers across the southern half of the US. It built quite a neat looking nest on the shop light hanging on the porch — I guess it also has a ready supply of food since I see plenty of insects there as well and given it’s name it must catch flying insects. It leaves the nest every time we go out the door and sometimes forgets where the outside door is, so I see it frantically hopping around on the screen trying to escape. At first I would catch it and release it outside, but anymore I just leave it alone. I have a photo of the nest on the photo blog (www.travelinshow.com), so you can see it there if you want to. I’ve also taken some photos of the bird, but haven’t downloaded them off my camera yet.

Yesterday while I was working from home, I looked out into the yard and saw a wild turkey meandering across it. I’ve seen them in the woods around the house, but never in the yard. It came up fairly close to the house, but not as close as the bird feeder, so although I got lots of photos, I’m not sure how they will turn out.

I have bluebirds nesting in the Martin house. Last year we had what I think was a blue grosbeak nesting in it but this year, it’s definitely a bluebird. Those are the first I’ve seen around here too although they are a normal bird for this area. Maybe it was too dry last year for them and that’s what also pushed the grosbeaks up as well. I don’t know for sure, but just have a feeling that has to do with the unusual bird species I’m seeing. Like last year, though I have brown headed cowbirds. They tend to stick with the grosbeaks since that’s one of their favorite nests to lay eggs in, but I haven’t seen any grosbeaks so far.

I have hummingbirds — one rather odd looking guy with a head full of feathers that stick up at odd angles and the rest are ruby throats.

Nothing remarkable on tap for this weekend. Hopefully Ken will not schedule too many projects. He kept himself overworked trying to get caught up in one weekend what he should have scheduled out over a couple, but to give him credit, he got it all done. He thought he was going to have Friday off as the plant was needing some parts that come from a factory in Mexico which was closed for the flu outbreak. They canceled that yesterday, so he’s working all week.

I got an early Mothers’ Day gift from Pam, John and the kids – it is a lovely silver bookmark that has their names engraved on it — you KNOW I’ll put that to good use! And from AKC, I finally got my bronze bred-by-exhibitor champion medallion.

Well, lunch is over, so it’s back to work for me.

Have a great day!

Love to all,

Margaret