Eight random things and a cute photo

Better late than never, I suppose. I've been tagged by Delia for the eight random facts meme, so here goes:


1. I have a weird talent for finding four-leaf clovers. As a child I found hundreds of them. Not so much lately, possibly because I don't spend enough time wandering around outside, or maybe it's because I spend more of my outdoor time looking up rather than down.


2. I'd rather eat cookie dough than baked cookies.


3. My husband is 20 years older than me. When he retired, I retired, which was 3 weeks before my mother retired.


4. I may be the only Democrat in our church.


5.I have a masters degree in computer science, but I only recently learned how to turn my cell phone to "vibrate".


6. My mother is the nicest person in the world. Anybody who knows her will agree. Actually there may be a tie between her and my husband.


7. I used to drive sports cars. Now I love my minivan - great for transporting pets.


8. I just read on Mary's blog that she, Delia, Sharon, Laura, Susan, and Lynne are all going to the Cape May bird festival in October, so I'm going to go too. Can't wait to meet all of them!


I'm not going to tag anyone else for the meme. I'm so late doing it, I'm sure most of my favorite bloggers have already been tagged.


Now for the cute photo - our church hosted the community Vacation Bible School a couple of weeks ago. Temps were in the 90s every day that week. I had it easy - an indoor job helping with crafts. The snack & recreation leaders had it rougher working outdoors. Here's a photo of some of the kids finding shade wherever they could...

cooling off

A favorite place





for these girls...





and these girls...

Summer colors at Lake Gaston

Don't we get "Animal Planet"?

I'm so sick of summer re-runs!!!





chihuahua

Happy 4 weeks!

Hey! Is that Little Bug all grown up and riding a jetski???





4 weeks old tomorrow and I don't usually call him Little Bug anymore. It's Bug or Big Bug or Bugaroni or Bug Boy or the Bugster. And he's eating bugs - hopping around our screen room pulling bugs out of spider webs. But mostly he still needs his food delivered - meal worms dropped straight down into his wide open mouth is what he likes best.





bluebird

Duck, Duck, Geese

Savannah & Paige have made friends with a pair of mallards that they named Bill & Morgan. Bill will eat out of their hands, but he won't let Morgan get that close to the food. A controlling husband, I guess.




When the geese saw the ducks being fed, they decided to join them.





Something that I've noticed about geese - there's never just two of them..





Even with all of the geese around, Bill & Morgan held their ground (I mean water). You can see them front and center.

young birdwatcher

He looks a bit apprehensive, but it was only a kingfisher on the other side of the lens.

The FABS

When a plastic flamingo appears on our dock, it can only mean one thing -





it's time for the annual FABS scavenger hunt.





The FABS (Flying Aqua Babes) are the Lake Gaston lady jetskiers. My husband's granddaughter is visiting & she said "they're old! It's like the Red Hat Ladies on jetskis!

The Bug takes flight

Little Bug may look grumpy in the next photo, but I think he was just contemplating his first flight around our screen room.





Here he is resting after his first flight...




And here he is getting his reward...





bluebird

Uncle Sam's driver

How did my husband snare the coveted job of driving Uncle Sam in last week's Littleton (NC) Independence Day parade?






He owns a convertible & he was available.


Uncle Sam

Little Bug update

Little Bug is doing well. He finally started opening his mouth for me a few days ago & I've been dropping mealworms in like crazy. I took this photo Saturday - age 14 days. Since then, he's grown a lot more, but I'm too lazy to go to my car to get the camera to download the latest photos. Soon...






bluebird

Little Bug's story... so far

Last month I was asked to make a website for The Eastern Bluebird Rescue Group, an organization started by our local wildlife guru, Frank Newell.


I decided that the first thing I needed was a photo for the logo, so I took my camera down to the lake & took a bunch of photos of our bluebirds who were happily raising their first clutch of the season in their "Frank Newell birdhouse". For the logo, I decided to use the following photo of the female poking her head out of the nest box. She is Little Bug's mom.





She and her mate finished raising their 3 babies and when the babies became a little more independent, she left Daddy to take care of them & she went back to the nest to start their second clutch. She laid 3 eggs & on Saturday June 23rd, 2 of them had hatched. Two days later my husband noticed that there was no activity around the box, so we took a peek inside that evening. We found one dead baby, one hungry & cold baby (Little Bug) and no sign of the third egg or baby. Daddy & at least 2 of the babies from the first clutch are still around, but no Mommy.


We brought Little Bug in, warmed him, fed him and left a messages with both of the bird rehabbers in our county - Frank & his daughter, Kristye. When Kristye called me back, I asked her if she knew of a bluebird nest around with newly hatched babies that we could drop Little Bug into. She said that she would check all of hers and get back to me. I told her I would try to keep him alive until we found a "foster home". When she called me back the next day, she told me that none of her pairs had started their second clutches yet, so she didn't have a home for him, but she would keep looking.


Here's Little Bug when we first took him in...





And I kept feeding. Here he is 7 days later...





Things haven't gone smoothly - he won't open his mouth to beg, which seems really strange. I've had to force his beak open for almost every feeding. From the photos I've searched on the web, he seems a little small for a 9 day old bluebird, but I'll just keep pumping the food into him & hope for the best.


baby bluebird