There’s a lilac bush up against one of our kitchen windows. It’s protected from strong winds by the house and brushy enough that little birds feel safe and cozy perched in its branches. Which means we can stand at our window and watch a sampling of the birds that live here at Headquarters right up close. So up close that we can see things like tiny yellow spots at bases of wings or whether the top and bottom of their beaks are the same color. We were never really birders before, but being able to stand in our kitchen, leisurely staring back and forth between these live close-ups and the pages of our bird book has made bird identification lots of fun. So far, not including the birds we’ve only heard or caught glimpses of, we’ve identified over thirty different species of birds on and around Headquarters. And there are seriously new ones every day.

On a side note, our bluebirds have babies. We watch both the male and female bring grubs into the bluebird house and a tiny orchestra of chirping meets them.