Yesterday all was beautiful down by the big pond. A tricolor wing blackbird serenaded me while I waged war on the horsetail. Actually he was trying to lure a mate to his newly built nest but as I weeded, I could imagine his
Cong-a -lee' was also for me. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught an osprey silently circling the pond. He did not make the usual high pitched chirping cry. If the amorous blackbird saw him, he gave no indication of it. Now most people know of the human sympathetic nervous system "fight or flight" response to extreme terror. I did not know that birds have the same reaction. The osprey suddenly folded it's wings and dove toward the water. His path took him within inches of the blackbird. Mid-song, the blackbird whitewashed his new nest. The osprey did not get a fish on that dive. The much lighter blackbird did not stick around to see. He took the flight option.
I guess the tricolor guy had second thoughts about nesting on our pond. He was not there today while Dave and I did honey-dos. The satellite dish hole was finally filled in; large landscaping boulders were moved into place (if you can't kill horsetail, maybe you can bury it) and my white dog cart was sanded and received it's first coat of Ferrari red paint. We may not be the fastest team but we will look it.
note: Alexis wrote to let me know about a YouTube video of the Mush Without Slush weekend and that she and her pitbull, Sage, we not in the one mile race. They competed in the 6.5 mile race. I checked the results - they got second place.
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