June 20, 2019

This morning I was stationed at a nearby unoccupied campsite near the lake shore shortly before the sun was due to rise, but I knew it would be a long shot if it did. Thunderstorms were predicted for this entire week, and for once the forecast was right on. We’ve gotten a lot of rain, which explains why the woods are looking so green and lush.

Rain had been pouring just an hour before this, but now that it had stopped, the birds were tweeting their morning chirps as usual. It had been their chirps that convinced me that the rain had passed, at least for now, and to go outside in the first place. I really wanted to see sunrise.

The grey clouds were moving quickly eastward, but even so, it became apparent that today’s sunrise was going to be obscure at best. I started back home, via the dock and boat launch ramp, where most of my sunrise pics are taken. I waited there for awhile, but there’d be no sunrise…not here anyway.

I may have not experienced sunrise in the usual sense, but as it turned out, I was blessed to witness the day’s unfolding just the same. In the short time I was outside, I saw my friend, the heron, who I see nearly every morning; and a juvenile red-headed woodpecker, who was comical. I watched it scale a telephone pole—pecking the whole way up—reach a certain point and fly over to a wire. I watched it do it again and again, and then something else caught my attention.

These tiny creatures landed close by, and I marveled at how sweet they looked They nest in a bush growing in the water next to the dock, so I’ve seen and heard them from a distance plenty of times. I had just never seen them this close.

Several weeks ago I downloaded an app that identifies birds called “Merlin.” It’s free and extremely easy to use. You just plug in the location of where you spotted the bird, the date you saw it, and a couple of physical characteristics (size and colors), and Merlin IDs your bird. My little yellow friends are prothonotary warblers.

It’s because of workamping here at the Land Between the Lakes that I’m learning so much about the woods, a place that’s extremely foreign to this city girl. I’m grateful for apps that help me identify the birds, trees and flowers that I see here, because there are a lot! Mother Nature’s sheer abundance has opened my eyes in a most wondrous way, and learning so many new things jazzes me. It always has. I’m even learning how to deal with environmental realities, such as chiggers, mice in the RV, and poison ivy. But even then, I’m learning.

Sometimes I have to laugh at how crazy my life must seem to some people. It certainly has been unpredictable, and yet fantastic. I write not so much for an audience (but if you’re reading this, Thank You), but so that I remember these days…because it truly is the little things that make life sweet.