What is blue and gray and winters in Florida?

Well, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, of course! This tiny bird breeds in the northern US and into Canada and winters in the southern states and into Central America. This is a male, identified by his "unibrow" which the females don't have. For a better look at his many brow, click HERE.

This tiny fellow will raise one or two broods of young and then head south, probably to Florida. Which brings me to the news of the day...

Later this summer, I will also be heading south. To Florida. To live!

This is the life-changing event that I referred to... Hubs has been offered a wonderful opportunity to be the Executive VP of a small hotel management company headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL. After a week of discussion, we decided that this was simply too good an opportunity to pass up and hubs gave his notice at work today ... So he will be heading to FL the first week in June and I will follow once we've sold our house, hopefully by the end of summer.

So, WOW, big changes! I'm vacillating between feeling very excited and also a bit sad. I am up for a new adventure, but I will miss our life here, too. On the upside, there are so many new birds and critters to discover in Florida ... and we won't have to deal with snow and sub-zero winters anymore. On the downside, no more quick jaunts into NYC and no more summer hummingbirds. But the pros far outweight the cons. And I'll still make trips up to NYC to visit my friend Kura. And I have so many new adventures to have in Florida!

Hubs is on his way back from Orlando as I write this, expected home by about 8 tonight. I plan to have a nice bottle of wine chilled so that we can properly toast his new position, and the start of the next chapter in our lives.

More to follow in the days to come... and thanks for joining me on the journey!

Debbi