The Bluebird of Happiness

I am so happy! What a glorious day! I was packing up the car to leave Lenape when I spotted a young fellow coming out of the field. I noticed he had been taking photographs and my curiosity was piqued because I don't normally see younger people in Lenape who have an interest in entomology or botony. B carried a longhandle net and told me that he was looking for praying mantis and katydids and since I had spotted a male and a female, I knew there were a few about. We began to chat and I offered to show him where the caterpillers webbed when another naturalist came over to say hello.

It's a good thing he did since we all got along very well and spent a few hours discussing everything we knew about birds, butterflies and Lenape. I learned quite a bit about the praying mantis from B, and D had his binoculors with him so he called out all the birds, including the red tailed hawk, the goldfinches and the bluebird.

The BLUEBIRD?! What! Where? I've never seen one in my entire life! I nearly killed myself to get to the car for the tripod so I could track his perching and his flight. I prayed the entire time that he wouldn't fly away, but Bluebaby was very tolerant, even swooping down to the ground in front of us to pick up a beetle.

Needless to say, I burnt out my two SD cards and had to leave, but I'm looking forward to running into both D & B in the near future. It's so nice to find local peeps who love the same thing you do!

For more of the very personable Bluebaby please see my flickr page here!

A rendition of the Bluebird of Happiness, a very popular song in 1945, can be heard here.

Happy Sunday everyone!