Another shot from last week.

The magnifying properties of raindrops. 

"The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night -
And I love the rain."

                                April Rain Song

                                                Langston Hughes

I changed some settings and

I am able to comment on my blog now.

I am still having trouble commenting

on some external blogs.

Last week we had days of rain.

"The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea."

Rain

Robert Louis Stevenson

I AM STILL HAVING TROUBLE COMMENTING

ON MOST BLOGS INCLUDING MINE.     

I noticed this the other day. It started with

a pair of crow in a tree being circled  by a

third. this went on for a minute or two finally

the two crows moved so they were sitting

side by side while the third continued to

circle closer

This seems to excite a magpie who appears.

hops up the truck and then finally launches

itself at the crows. Eventually everyone leaves.

"What if
the mockingbird came into the house with you and
became your advisor?"

                              How Would You Live Then

                                              Mary Oliver

PLEASE NOTE I AM HAVING TROUBLE COMMENTING,

BOTH ON MY BLOG AND OTHER PEOPLES.   

Last week before the rain

Leaving for work.

The jackrabbits like to sit with their backs

against the spruce trees in our front yard with

their backs to the street. This renders them

invisible. I like to reassure them by saying

"I can't see you" as I go by.

At lunch I meet a much more assertive robin.

"To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work."

                      Yes! No!
                                    Mary Oliver

Friday morning about 7:30 I ran into a small flock

of Chipping Sparrows.  I was surprised they had not

paired off yet.

"No method nor discipline can supersede the

necessity of being forever on the alert,"

                      Walden

                       Henry David Thoreau

Friday I went back to the pond to see if the more

"exotic" ducks were still around the Gadwell pair was

gone but the American Widgeon pair was there.

They were preening and washing for all they were worth.

A Mallard got too close to the male which led to a display

of I'm bigger than you when I stand on tippee toe. By this

point the female has gone to join the Canadian Geese and

other Mallards to see if the lunch crowd could spare a

sandwich. The Mallard seemed unimpressed.

" he would share the feelings and adventures of

the part of him that was universal and curious.

The part that was travelling, experiencing,

knowing the lives of things. Things like wheels,

like swings. One more bustling soul out there

looking for what to do next."

A Wheel in the Desert, the Moon on Some Swings

                           Jonathan Carroll



After a trip to the garden centre to get

plants for the pots. Shaun inspects the haul.

"Perfection caught in the amber of our days

Jewels the life; on the offended thread

We hang the instants of the soul's surprise"

                           As Flowers Are

                                            Stanley Kunitz

I went down to my local park yesterday

expecting my usual Mallards and

Canadian geese. But I also found

a pair of Gadwall.

And a pair of American Wigeon

I also went back to the shrubs for some more

wasps and bees.

The insect in the shots below
appears to be a Hover Fly.

"Tiny antennae and flattened abdomen."
Bugs of Alberta

"Hoverflies are harmless to most other animals
despite their mimicry of the black and yellow
stripes of wasps, which serves to ward off predators."

Wikipedia

The larva eat aphids and other pests so they are
used as a biocontrol.

"The insect world appealed to Fabre.

I find the insect world macabre.

In every hill of ants I see

A governed glimpse of what shall be"

                                     Creeps and Crawls                                 

               Ogen Nash

I went down to the park on Tuesday and there they

were finally, insects, a selection of bees and wasps.

Despite having most of  the books of J.H. Fabre and

Edwin Way Teale and spending part of my youth

with a jam jar ( catch and release only )

I am still not great with names, I am still looking

through Sibley for the tree as well. (hints welcome)

The first is a small bee or small wasp.

The next two photos are of a Western Yellow Jacket?

I have always just called these Bumble Bees

"Dear insects, my study of you has sustained

me and continues to sustain me in my heaviest

trials; I must take leave of you for to-day.

The ranks are thinning around me and the

long hopes have fled. Shall I be able to speak

of you again ? "

Bramble-Bees & Others

                        J.H. Fabre

The footnote mentions that after this passage

he wrote another seven volumes on insects.

I have been travelling a bit again. On May 9th we

had some very welcome visitors a small group of

White-Crowned Sparrows.

"They catch your eye early, those rising black

Out of the water oaks at dusk or those skimmimg

The grey lakes at dawn. You know you must learn

Them by name,"

                                          For Stephen Drawing Birds

                                                        Pattiann Rogers

"Let us hope

it will always be like this

each of us going on

in our inexplicable ways

building a universe."

                   Song of the Builders

                             Mary Oliver