Winter Bird

Brown Thrasher photo by Dan Pancamo

 I spotted one of these beautiful birds in the back yard this morning. First thing I noticed was how much it resembled a mockingbird. I checked my Sibley bird book, and it was as I suspected, a Brown Thrasher, and in the same family, Mimidae, as the mockingbird. I see on Wikipedia that my house is in the wintering region of the thrasher, so perhaps winter is coming sooner than expected.

It seems the hummingbirds have already deserted us, too, another sign of impending weather changes.

I finally have spider lillies!

Two and a half years ago when I moved 160 miles south from my former home I brought with me some spider lilly bulbs from my old back yard and scattered them around my new home, hoping that they would take hold in at least one spot. Two years went by and I didn't see any spider lillies bloom. I was disappointed. I decided that the soil or climate just wasn't to their liking.

A few days ago I noticed what looked like 3 spider lillies poking up in three different spots in the back yard. Now they're blooming, and there are a few dozen more about to bloom. Sometimes nature just takes longer than we expect it to. I'm so happy to welcome all these "spiders" to my yard.

These flowers should slowly multiply, and get better with each passing year, but I doubt I'll ever have a display like This! Ooh, la la!