Guess the Mystery Bird, Sandpiles are Awesome, Jr. D gets Aggressive, Bingo is Bored, and the Hummingbirds are Hyper.

Welcome to the mixed salad of my bloggy pictorial for this week. A little of this, a little of that, for a taste of everything light and mostly fresh.

First I have a little soft calling bird. It's no mystery for me but a challenge for some of you birdy folks out there. This is the female of the species and more subtly colored in comparison to the gaudy males. Or rather brilliantly colored males . . . I predict Joan should know this lady without pause. For the rest of you just look to the end of the post for the answer.


I asked Mike to bring home some sand for our "sand pile" and we got the sand mountain which is only to be expected. This is basically 25 tons of sand, an end dump full, which Daddy Mike brought home for the kids.


The kids really don't like sand very much. They hardly play in it at all . . .


And they never get sand all over their clothes and in their socks and they never bring in shoe loads of sand in the house and never make me yell and scream about their mess. Nope. That never happens.


Wyatt says, "Mom, how could I possibly bring sand in the house? I'm not wearing any shoes or socks. Duh!"

Every child should have a sand pile, no mater how small. Just some little plot of earth covered with sand where they can dig with shovels, wiggle their toes, and get grits under their finger nails.

Now on to "The Chickens." I'm not showing the ladies. They are up to their usual behavior of pecking each other. I've given up on beautiful chickens. BUT Jr. D is taking after his old man and is constantly jumping the fencing around the coop. He likes to perch dominantly on the gate and scream at us in the morning. He's a real charmer.

Additionally, he is beginning to show some aggressive tenancies which are not unlike his father. The added bonus is that he is bigger than his dad. I can't wait to see how his spurs grow in. Maybe he will be meaner than pop. We can only hope.


Smaller more polite hummingbirds have been frequenting our Mexican sage and dominating the mulberry tree next to my house. These little gems flash their colors with the same territorial aggression that the rooster shows, but he's just so small he can't do the same kind of damage. And he knows it. So he keeps his distance from us humans.

But I still captured his attitude and lovely colors.

Bingo the Mighty Adventurer has been on the prowl, meandering across the property in search of something to do. He's been on the job. He knows he has an obligation to provide me with optimal photographic opportunities. He knows I need material for future Bingo books. He knows he can't survive on just rodent meat alone.


But even with his jaded, movie star, super model attitude, he will obligingly and patiently let me take his picture. For the one millionth time . . .


Are those water droplets on Bingo's tongue? Or is it spray? Or just glistening? I could not figure out what that shine was... Even zoomed.

And lastly, the horses have not been forgotten or ignored. They've been doing their jobs. They look nice standing in their fields, they roll in their own manure, they eat lots of hay. It's a rough life.

Their paycheck comes from their real job which I can attest amounts to approximately 2 hrs per week. They seem happy to comply (well for the most part) with being ridden only twice a week. I think they have a pretty good gig.


Once again I am at the tail end of my post with little substantial depth of material to present. But I'm here, and have documented a fragment of our existence on the planet.

p.s. The mystery bird is a female western bluebird.

The End.