# 28 in the Blooms

Continuing my Birds and Blooms series and also adding the 28th species of bird to be blipped this year - a Chipping Sparrow.  This is the sixth sparrow species I've blipped from my yard this year, too.  These tiny sparrow show up each spring, filling the air with their trilling song.  They can easily be mistaken for their close relative, the American Tree Sparrow, Yardbird # 5 although usually the tree sparrows are gone before the chippies arrive.  This year, for the first time I can remember, we still had one straggler tree sparrow around when the first chipping sparrows arrived.  

Two trips to Home Depot today resulting in the purchase of 25 bags of mulch.  I single-handedly spread 20 of those bags (each bag is 2 cubic feet) in my new garden.  And every muscle in my body is screaming at me right now, insisting that I'm not as young as I once was.  However, there is something satisfying about looking at my garden with all that fresh mulch.  I'll put an iphone shot in Extra just to give you an idea.  It's a little hard to get the size perspective, but it's a large bit of land.

The pine warbler is still hanging around.  Last night, he was joined briefly by a beautiful male yellow-rumped warbler in full breeding plumage.  And today, while I was outside, two broad-winged hawks flew right over the yard calling to each other!  This is not a species I've ever seen from my yard so that was pretty exciting.  It also brings my yard-list to 46 for the year.  I'm looking to beat last year's total of 83 species...

Looking forward to talking to my parents in the morning.  Then, in the afternoon, we'll have MIL over for a visit and dinner.  She has been asking a lot about Philip lately which is difficult.  We've decided that no good will be served by telling her that he is gone; but constantly telling her that she's recently seen/talked to him is also very hard.  Still, she doesn't need to know.  

Hoping everyone is having a great weekend.

xo
Debbi