God gave me a gift today. I love the bluebirds of North Carolina. I have a house for them and even leave them worms. Today, I was rewarded for my efforts. I checked the 5 eggs and all of a sudden a brand new baby burst out of its shell. The membrane inside the shell was still moist and part of the shell stayed stuck to the baby's head like a soldiers helmet. I said "Wow" and the baby opened its little mouth, waiting for its first feeding. I took this picture and quickly put it back inside the house. This was a job for an expert bluebird mother. I hope it makes you smile.
PS: I will leave Mom some extra worms in the morning!
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Dee, this is so precious. It is little joys like this that make life’s difficulties just a bit lighter. God bless you and the work that you and Deb do here at TWW.
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@ Darlene:
Thank you!
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Love this! Thanks for sharing this wonderful picture. I have hung out my hummingbird feeders. 😉
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Oh, this is wonderful! What incredible beauty. The blue in those eggs is amazing.
Dee, on another positive note, my husband’s test results were not so bad and the doctor was very encouraging about the treatment for his cancer, so we are feeling very encouraged. Thanks for your caring comment before and I hope all is going well with you, also. This site is a godsend for me, thank you so much for all you do!
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@ siteseer:
Oh, what a wonderful report. It makes me want to cry. I know how hard it is. My daughter survived a large malignant brain tumor and the pain and worry were with us for years.
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So great to see a nice post. I have been busy with family visiting D.C. this week, and as much as I enjoy reading here, it’s been nice to have a few days off from thinking about childhood sexual abuse!
Thinking of you and your family, Dee!
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In Lamentations, the prophet went on and on about the disasters going on and on and on then he said
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness,
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for Him. Lamentations 3: 22-
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Awwww! Thanks for sharing this. So sweet.
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@ siteseer:
Great news! Praying that healing comes.
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Wow! So glad you got to be there at that special moment! And what a wonderful photo you got so that you could share the gift!
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@ Deb:
I saw two hummingbirds today!
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Thank you soooo much for this dee! Now I’m really in a William Blake mood. Mrs. Muff and me have hummingbirds we look after by making sure they have a never ending supply of nectar in their feeder. We know they have a nest of babies somewhere on our grounds, but we’re in no hurry to find out where and disturb them.
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@ Muff Potter:
I love hummingbirds. I have two feeders on my kitchen windows. I love to watch them feed while sitting at the table. What color are the ones you have in your area?
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@ dee:
They range from shimmering emerald waist coats and ruby throated plumage to a subtle rust color with a charcoal collar band. They feast on small flying insects mostly, but I’ve seen them go to ground, poke around in the leaf mulch and score a millipede or two. The nectar in the feeder is their high-octane aviation gas so to speak, its primary purpose is to fuel those astonishing wing beat cycles.
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My grandmother raised ten children with an alcoholic husband during the Great Depression through WW II. Her favorite saying was, “There is a bluebird of happiness just right around the corner.” May there be one for all of us!
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Wonderful photo, great colors and subject. Maybe you should put up a webcam and TWW can compete with the eagle cams out there. (:
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Awwwww. Bluebirds are great!
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Thank you for sharing the baby bird photo. I hope all the baby birds and Mom bird do okay. 🙂
The eggs are a very pretty blue.
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Oh, Dee, I’m so sorry. The big “C” sure leaves it’s mark. It makes me so sad when children have to deal with it.
bc, thanks for sharing that wonderful scripture. You guys refresh my soul.
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https://youtu.be/1krBpkp3R1w The intricacy of such fragile yet strong beauty. The Glory of God in everyday Humility and grace. A video of close up pictures of hummingbirds.
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I was immediately struck by the similarity in colour between the eggs and the (under-ratedly beautiful) planet Uranus:
commons.wikimedia.org/Uranus
IHTIH
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Quick, call in Paige Patterson so that he can shoot it.
Seriously, though – isn’t creation beautiful?
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Very cool! Thanks for sharing with us.
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We have Stellar Jays that show up once in a while, and hummingbirds. I miss the owls, hawks, and eagles of the Northwest, though …
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@ Martha:
My grandmother used to say that!
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@ brad/futuristguy:
I have a gold hawk who visits several times a week.
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@ brad/futuristguy:
We also have screech owls. They sound like someone is torturing a child. It drives me insane.
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Gus wrote:
And stuff it and hang it on his wall.
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@ Nick Bulbeck:
You always make me laugh.
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Bill M wrote:
How small are those cams? There is not much room in the house.
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Those eggs are gorgeous!
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This is heartwarming. And for some reason imagining you digging in the dirt for worms, also warms my heart! 🙂
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I live in central NC also and have a bluebird house. I have noticed the parent birds flying frequently to the box in the last week. I’ve also noticed them removing fecal sacs.
Whenever I come across Japanese beetle grubs in the course of digging in the yard and garden, I toss them onto the driveway so that the birds can find them. The bluebirds relish the grubs (if the mockingbirds or sparrows don’t get them first).
Lovely picture, Dee. And thanks, Nick, for pointing out the lovely color of Uranus. I would say it’s bluebird-egg blue.
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dee wrote:
Even when I’m not trying to..!
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Okay, Dee. I’m honest to a fault. Baby wild birds are UGLY. Oh, but this little blue bird is going to grow up to be so beautiful, and it’s going to make beautiful, cheerful music! Amazing how God takes something so homely and helpless and makes it so magnificent. Great photo, btw.
We have lots of different birds in Southern Kentucky. Humming birds are one of my favs. I plant zinnias to draw them. I got a couple of great photos of one last year. I also took a photo of a turkey buzzard – those things are homely when they hatch, and homely when they’re adults!
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Thanks Dee. A reminder that God’s creation sticks to His plan and causes joy for the beholder from critters in the backyard to majestic landscapes to beautiful sunsets, while the pinnacle of creative beings – man – continues to drift from His purposes. When you think about it, the only species which is off track is Homo sapiens! The rest of creation is still in tune with God, while mankind spins into moral chaos (even in the church, as you report!). In Romans 8, Paul writes that all of creation groans in earnest expectation for man to get it right! Two thousand years after Paul penned those words, you can still hear the groaning if you listen closely.
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Thank you! A perfect wake-up post today.
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Nancy2 wrote:
Well, brand new ones are, yes. But the one in the fotie will be fluffy in a few days’ time.
BTW, that’s why I love tarantulas so much. Eight legs and fluffy? What’s not to love!
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Awwww. This made me smile. I rarely see a bluebird in our area. We have had House Wrens nest in the porch planters, and Red-headed Woodpeckers and Painted Buntings come to the feeder along with many other birds. Now that we have a cat colony on the premises, the only birds brave enough to risk coming to the feeder are Cardinals and Blue Jays.
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We have a gorgeous baby blue finch that comes out to the birdseed tray. Plus 2 squirrels, one a fox squirrel and one a cat squirrel. Lots of pretty cardinals too. At night time we put a tray of left over foods and cheap cat food out for the racoons, possums and and others that are hungry. Pardon my spelling. I have just had foot surgery this morning. I am a little doey now. I think I will take a long nap soon.
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Nancy2 wrote:
Actually, most human babies come into this world with mugs that only a mother would love … some newborns look like lizards! Except my grandson, that is ;^)
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Dee, thank you for sharing this. A little joy in the week. 🙂
I have posted an update on the Feb. 18th post.
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2016/02/18/a-long-time-tww-reader-in-need-of-support-through-gofundme/
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brad/futuristguy wrote:
There’s still an un-gentrified little piece of country just South of my place where I go to watch the red-tailed hawks wheel on the thermals. Their circles (ellipses?) are always anti-clockwise when viewed from the ground.
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Muff Potter wrote:
We have a pair we see almost daily 🙂 down here a bit South of you.
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A beautiful gift of new life!
Thanks be to God.
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I remember tutoring for the daughter of a Baptist minister who lives near us. They had a basket set up for their mail because doves had come and nested in the mailbox beside their front door. Beautiful!
The birds instinctively knew they would be protected there.
God is good. 🙂
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Max wrote:
Have you never heard of cats????
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@ Nick Bulbeck:
Easy now Bulbeck.
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@ Nick Bulbeck:
Oh yes, cats. Actually, you could extend that to most species which man has domesticated. The wild versions of cats, dogs, etc. are still pretty much doing what they were on the first day after creation. Domesticated species behave differently than the divine design thanks to the meddling of Homo sapiens.
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I think “First” goes to Dee this time….
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How precious…. God’s creations always humble me! Thanks for posting!!!
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Nick Bulbeck wrote:
Heehee! Amen.
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@ Max:
They look like Winston Churchill.
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@ Beakerj:
Well, you come and de-poo our flowerbeds, then. More seriously, it is estimated (by the RSPB, the Mammal Society and Sir David Attenborough) that around 55 million small birds are murdered by cats every year in the UK alone.
From the point of view of human experience, clearly midges are the most evil species on earth. However, I don’t believe they have even a hive mind. Cats, on the other hand, premeditate their crimes, both of flower-bed-pooing and avian mass slaughter.
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@ dee:
I got addicted to eagle cam. Just kept it up. Every now and then one of us would pass by and go “oh wow look at this!” and we’d all go running to look. I felt like we were the Jetsons enjoying nature. :o)
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@ Nick Bulbeck:
Midges?
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(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover – a beautiful classic from Vera Lynn in an era when hope was scarce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FawMg0NXpg&rel=0
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We have crows who line up on the roof ridge and dare us to do anything about it. I throw pebbles which do not get anywhere near them but they panic and take off every time. That is not exactly the joys of nature in the springtime, but then nature is complicated.
The bluebird is precious.
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I anticipate a “Tweet” coming soon.
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@ BeenThereDoneThat:
I think painted buntings are so beautiful! We only saw them once or twice at our bird feeder but since my feeder is situated just about 2 ft. from my kitchen window, we got a close up view and were especially delighted to see the males which are blue, green, yellow and red!
Wonderful picture, Dee! Who could look at that and not smile? 🙂
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How wonderful! I wish we had bluebirds in the Pacific Northwest; they sure are beautiful birds. We have a couple of bird feeders and hummingbird feeders and we are starting to track what birds come to visit us. My recent (and most exciting) find was a Barred Owl that I spotted not too far from our house.
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@ Lydia:
Small flying insects. Annoying bloodsucking creatures, leaving little, red, and itchy bumps. Gnats, maybe, on the US side of the Atlantic?
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Through a glass darkly wrote:
Mosquitoes. Gnats don’t bit.
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Eww. Think I am glad I don’t know what are.
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Max wrote:
LOL. I think they look like raisins!
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Nick Bulbeck wrote:
Only if you live in Scotland. 😉
The worst place for midges in my experience is Loch Torridon, but YMMV.
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Gus wrote:
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Gus wrote:
Or, perhaps, of “gehenna”…
Midges can be unbearable just about anywhere in Scotland on windless damp days in summer, but as they struggle to hit a moving target, it depends less on where you are than on what you’re doing. If you’re running or cycling – or even walking – life is tenable. If, on the other hand, you’re putting in fence-posts using quick-setting post-mix concrete that you can’t readily abandon, life is grim.
I speak from bitter experience… 😡
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Lydia wrote:
As TaGD noted above, they are small biting insects. Colloquially, they are known in Scotland as “midgies”, which is the plural of “midgey” (cf “a wee beastie”).
A midge-bite is like a scaled-down wasp sting, or pinprick. It itches more than it hurts, though you can certainly feel it. The trouble lies in their numbers. Every cubic metre of air above damp ground in Scotland contains an estimated infinity midges.
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@ Nick Bulbeck:
Those are definitely downsides of cats being around, I don’t disagree with that at all, but cats in & of themselves are far from horrendous. But maybe they should all be house cats or farm cats.
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Victorious wrote:
The first time I saw one at the feeder I thought someone’s pet had escaped. 🙂 They are so colorful.
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Thanks for sharing!
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Praise to Adonai for this precious little bird and for the eggs soon to hatch. Hallelujah!:D
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I must have bluebirds on my mind. Last night I had a dream that there was a baby bluebird in my back yard. I stood watching it dance – it was hopping on one leg and waving a wing in the air. Next thing I knew, the mother bird flew out of the air and hit me in the chest. I woke up actually feeling like I had been hit in the chest. Bizarre all the way around!
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Through a glass darkly wrote:
Blackfly. We get them around here. There is something very creepy about sitting down in a lawnchair to chat with a friend, & having to blot the little streams of blood that trickle down your face when they get you…..like wee vampires.