Thursday, March 30, 2006

Why do I try to bird with the girls? Why, I say?

Flood plains at the Oxbow
Look at the color of that sky...yummy!

The Oxbow, Inc.
American Coots
I actually thought the girls would get on board today and be good while I birded. Silly, silly girl.
We picked Mom up and headed down to the Oxbow. The fields were flooded, so there were limited areas to get into, but the day was beautiful and I was optimistic.
We saw plenty of American Coots, which were nice, but already on my list.
Then Mom pointed out a small, diving bird out on the water.
A Pied-billed Grebe! Hooray!
(Check that one off!!!)
A cute little thing, it was.
Well, I had a solid 3 minutes of birding before the girls started chanting "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"
Sigh.
Then Lorelei started to cry and yell for Daddy.
Then Isabelle started yelling at Lorelei
and asking at the top of her lungs, "What are doing here, anyway?"
Double-long sigh.
Back at Mom's house, we got the pleasure of watching a male Northern Pintail fly over!
(Check that one off, too!)
All in all, I got two life birds, but along with that I also got high blood pressure and a nervous tic.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought I was the one who gave you the nervous tic.

Endment said...

Oh... you bring back memories...
I have to confess a secret gratitude that our children now have their own children to care for and I can go birding in peace. You have lots and lots and lots more sympathy.

Susan Gets Native said...

I don't want to wish away their childhood, but it will be sooooo nice when they can act like they have some sense.
I dream of a day when we go out for a "girl's day of birding" and we actually get to see birds!
Someday...
:-)

Anonymous said...

Fear not: They WILL have "Fond Memories" of Mom taking them birding.

LauraHinNJ said...

Turn it into a game for them or send them off looking for fairy footprints while you look at the birds.

Susan Gets Native said...

Yeah, maybe...but they are both going through "phases" right now. And the phases are different for each kid. But neither of them are in listening-to-Mommy moods lately. So they might run off into the woods and not come back.
:-O
Heavy sigh...Geoff is almost done with his book, so I will get some time to myself soon, I hope!