Da da dum dum, da da dum..............
Ready?
THURSDAY:
Isabelle graduated from Kindergarten. I cried. A lot.


FRIDAY:
Caught some teeny hummingbird tongue action.

Powder thought my nice Longaberger bread basket would do for a bed.

Makes her look like she forgot her body somewhere.
SATURDAY:
I took the bird-sicles that Kathi gave me, to RAPTOR. I thawed out a starling and gave it to Lucy.

I left her alone, and by the time I came back to put her back she had de-headed it.
I did some glove training with No-No:

I could look at him all day. What a mixture of textures...pure white, copper, chevrons of dark grays...and let's not forget those big liquid eyes....Ooooooo.
Our first yard bird babies of 2008 showed up to learn how to use the feeders.
House finches:

Why is it that the last of the baby feathers are ALWAYS on top of their heads, like bad haircuts?

"Dad? Dad? Dad? Daaaaaaaaad? Daaaaaaaaaaad?"

This one hovered awkwardly for about 10 seconds trying to get back up to the feeders.
SUNDAY:
Picnic at Germantown Metropark.
My first kingfisher nest, on a cliff above the dam backwater:

Carrying a fish back to the babies!
This sign is by the fence above the backwater, just for those dummies who would think that a swim in an active backwater would be a great idea. I asked the girls to stand in front of it with frowns on their faces, and Lorelei, without any prompting, struck this pose:

Yep, that's my kid.
We took a nature walk and found a red-backed salamander:

Look, Nina! A Sally-mander!
I started turning over buckeye leaves and found a little blue caterpillar:

What kind of caterpillar uses buckeye for a host plant? Anyone know?
And a life dragonfly:

A Carolina Saddlebags. A goofy name for a spectacular dragonfly.
I didn't even include all the gardening I did in the past few days. I am typing with most of my fingers wrapped in Band-Aids. I will have to save all that excitement for the next post.