Weekly bird in the hand

Here is this week's list of things I am grateful for:

"Shall we dance?"  Photo by mikebaird

• Matt, Peter, Mary and Fin - my sister and her family, who arrive back in England today :-(. We'll miss them. After staying with us, they enjoyed a few days in Yosemite and some in SF. We had dinner with them on Wednesday night.  We so enjoyed our time together.
• Our pond. I've taken to trying to find a little time each day to sit at our pond. It's so peaceful - apart from all the wildlife!  I love watching the great blue heron; the turtle on the duck platform, soaking up the sun; the kingfishers; the red and blue dragon flies; the frogs; the fly catchers; the fish and tadpoles; and occasionally, when I sit quietly, Quentin and his new family of tiny quails wanders by.  
• My voice lesson. I had such a great voice lesson this week.  Just exciting! Thanks Karen.
• My dear friend Clare whose birthday it is today
• My dear friend Fabienne whose birthday it is today
• Walking in a quiet area and listening to the silence.
• The joy of learning

Desperately Seeking Female Bull Frog! - Friday's facts, fascinations and folklore

Yes, we have a male bull frog in our pond this year and he is making such a noise!  Day and night.... he never shuts up with his deep growl.  It sounds like a big monster from the deep - and just keeps going...  Apparently, the bull frog got it's name because it is one of the biggest frogs and it's call sounds like an angry bull.  I've decided to call him Bello the Bull frog as he looks like bellows when he croaks.



It is the "find a mate" call that he is making - or as they are officially known "advertisement calls"  - so if you have a female bull frog - please let me know.  I will bring our male bull frog to your female however - as we don't want a family of croakers in our pond!!!  One is deafening enough and we have all the other frogs in their chorus in the background too!



As you listen to the youtubes - turn the volume up to max and that is what we are hearing!!!

Let's find a female fast! Desperately seeking FBF......

Look who's fishing today

Came home this afternoon to see this little guy busy fishing down at the pond. Actually, I think he is "frogging" but not sure there is such a word.


We had masses of really large tadpoles this year - just enormous - so now of course, we have masses of frogs! When you walk down to the pond there are hundreds of splashes as all the frogs jump into the water!!!

With all the rain we've had the last couple of days, the birds are just loving the pond as the water level is higher than the plants so all those morsels of tasty pond life can't hide as easily.

So this little Snowy Egret came along in his beautiful yellow shoes, sat on the bird box and checked out the frog scene! Don't you just love those yellow feet!!