There is a nice Metro Park about 14 miles from my house, in a city I frequently shop in, so I often go to Nature Realm to hike (and pray), then do my shopping. The park has three good hiking trails of 1.4, .5, and .6 miles with long and/or steep hills, so it's a good workout. There is also a Nature Center, arboretum, rock and herb garden, butterfly garden, prairie, suspension bridge over a 40-foot deep ravine, and a couple of ponds.
A few weeks ago I was seeing deer--often startling them and they me--and told my family I think I'd seen more deer in 11 days than in the last 11 years!!! Before then, we could count on one hand the number of times we'd seen deer there. Several of them were fawns, including one that ventured to within ten feet of me as I stood watching it on the trail.
The big attraction at this park, though, is hand-feeding the birds: mostly chickadees, but also tufted titmice, white- and red-breasted nuthatches, cardinals, and woodpeckers (only twice). The chickadees come the most often and usually seem to have little fear. Sometimes they fly quite close to you, and sometimes they fight over "landing rights." What a feeling of awe as these little birds in their black and white "tuxedos" sit on your hand, grab a seed, and take off. Once a chickadee decided to eat its seed while sitting on my little finger, which made me rather nervous, but it left before finishing (whew!).
The white-breasted nuthatches are heavier. They usually land on a tree nearby and work their way down, then come to your hand. However, Thursday I had them coming from further away, flying in like the chickadees sometimes do.
A couple weeks ago I had a first--a male cardinal with a bald head (they have black skin) came to my hand three times! He was feeding a baby. I was surprised that he didn't hesitate, but landed on a plant nearby for just a moment, then came right over.
Then Monday of this week I was sitting on a bench by one of the ponds with my arm resting on a split-rail fence. There was a baby cardinal making a lot of noise, and soon a female landed a couple feet away on the fence, quickly opening and closing her beak and making loud chirps as she looked at me as if to say, "C'mon, lady, throw a peanut down for me; can't you see I've got a baby to feed?!" I decided to wait her out. She slowly got closer and closer, then reached over with her beak and grabbed a peanut, immediately flying off to feed the noisy baby. Meanwhile, the chickadees came intermittently. Once while the female cardinal was making up her mind whether to come or not, a chickadee headed in for a seed, which made her mad and she let the chickadee know it! The chickadee quickly reversed direction, landing a few inches away from my hand on the opposite side from the cardinal, and waited until she got her seed, then came. That was funny.
A male cardinal came, also, and stretched his neck as far as he could, managing to grab a peanut. Then the female came back. This time she got hold of a peanut but dropped it on the ground, and instantly dived to get it. She came once more for a peanut. The last time she sat on the fence looking exasperated with me, then flew off without a peanut. By then I didn't hear the baby anymore.
Today was a very windy day at the park. Many of the trees have started turning color, and it is getting very pretty. As I hiked, there were a lot of leaves falling all around, and nuts too, which made a lot of noise. I didn't hear any birds close to the trail, so I didn't get to feed any today. So I went onto the deck adjoining the Nature Center instead to watch the sunlight on the pond. When the wind kicked up, the ripples would shimmer brightly as they moved across the water. Sometimes another set of ripples would start and cut across the first set at right angles, moving very quickly. The sunlight reminded me of sparklers or lightning bugs, only much brighter.
Then I noticed that sometimes the ripples were blue, reflecting the sky, and without shimmers. Or they were just the color of the pond, green.
On the way home, leaves were "attacking" my car and dancing on the highway. The wind buffeted my little car a lot, which made for interesting driving.
It was a very enjoyable day, thinking about the activities of the week and looking at God's creation. Truly He is an awesome God!
