A Few Birds, A Little Snow

I have lived with the saying, “If you don’t like the weather in Missouri, just wait, it will change in five minutes.” Here it is mid April; on the 10th there was so much rain (for the second time in two weeks) that flooding became a problem very quickly. People around the lakes showed up to take pictures of the dams that had all their flood gates open because they’d never seen it before, while people “down stream” from them watched the water get high than they’d ever seen it and fill their houses with water.

Today I’m watching gold finches out of my window with their lemon yellow summer plumage while tiny little snowflakes swirl around them. We’re not going to have any accumulation, but that’s no the point! I know we’ve had some of our worst snows in March, but I just canNOT remember snow in April!!! Yesterday while we were having a few minutes of sleet, I was reminded that one of my cousins was getting married outdoors on horseback. *low whistle* Can’t wait to see the pictures from that one…

The birds don’t seem amazed at all. There are gold finches sitting in the grapevine; bright yellow dots against a gray sky. Occasionally they are joined by the odd sparrow, purple finch, or brown headed cowbird, but most are making perches on the bird feeder. The cowbird, grackles, and starlings grab seeds while they can before dad sees them and sends them bolting with a quick WHACK! to the patio door. They do tend to land in mobs and chase other birds off, but I still kind of like them.

We also have cardinals, titmouse, three kinds of woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and occasionally a blue jay. My ability to identify birds is very limited. I can’t get the subtle differences between, for instance, song, crowned, and English sparrows. I still regularly get the purple finch and house finch mixed up. But even with that, I can’t imagine a house without a bird feeder and bird bath.

The snow has picked up and it’s time for church. I better fly…uh...I mean go now.