Gone to the birds....

Who knew we would have so many birds to enjoy?

Not having given it much thought before the move, we have been delightfully surprised by all the birds who frequent our area. Awhile back, Rhonda discovered an app called Merlin. It is from Cornell Labs and is a way to identify birds by the sounds they make.

Once you download the free app, you then customize it for the area where you live. When you hear a bird you want to identify, you start recording it. When the app recognizes the bird, it shows a picture and gives you the chance to save it by having an account with Cornell or you can just keep it on your phone.

It is so much fun. However, something that tends to happen is once the birds know you have the app turned on and want to record them, they shut up. They get quiet as church mice. Despite that, I have been able to identify grackles, mockingbirds, house sparrows, orange-crowned warblers, black-tailed gnatcatchers, verdins, house finches, Albert’s towhee……well, you get the idea. I also heard an owl one morning but didn’t have my phone handy to identify what sort of owl it was. This is the area right behind our house - I’ve shown it to you before through the white fence. Here’s a better photo. This area is teeming with birds!

Something I find amusing is how many people were concerned that we would have difficulty adjusting to being in a city after 26 years of living out in the country. Of course, we had the same concern and are delighted to report we are adjusting quite nicely and actually love being able to get to the grocery store in 10 minutes instead of 30……and being able to use Instacart. We would never have been able to have groceries delivered where we lived before.

Gotta go now. Rhonda’s mom has invited us over for dinner and Pearl is very excited. She heard Grandma made her a new place mat setting for Pearl’s gold-rimmed water dish. Some folks need a bit of help holding up their head!

Moving with grace and ease,

Krysta