I thought I’d share a few photos of wildlife on the Funny Farm I’ve seen throughout the week. This week has been stressful, finishing testing and analyzing data, along with the other general parts of wrapping up a school year. It’s nice to come home and walk the dogs and breathe fresh air and forget about the demands and deadlines, if only for a few minutes.
Carolina Wren on the front porch, gathering nesting materials
Carolina Wren, singing, singing, singing
Mourning Dove
Funny Farm Bunny – there is a colony of them that lives down at the end of the driveway.
Funny Farm Finch
Carolina Wren singing a morning song
Deer (picture taken through a screen)
Northern Cardinal
May 18 – Hawk in a tree, Johnson Funny Farm
Hawk in a tree (just left of center) – funniest thing: I said a quick prayer, “Lord, I would love to see a hawk today.” I always feel my mother’s presence when I see one. I did what I always do: I pulled into the driveway, turned off the air, put the windows down so I could drive slowly, hearing the gritty crunch of gravel under my tires, and began inching up the driveway. I first saw a tufted titmouse, then a robin. As I approached the top of the hill, I caught a glimpse of a large upward wingspan swooping up off to the left. I grabbed my camera, and for one moment the hawk took it all in and the next swooped off back into the deeper woods. I caught one photo, here, and one of just his tail as he flew away. What a beautiful moment – a prayer for a hawk sighting, a hawk, and the feeling of the presence of my mother. No prayer is ever too big – or ever too small!
It’s 9:00 Saturday morning (May 13), and my husband and I are seated in the Country Kitchen near Pine Mountain, Georgia having breakfast. Many camping folks get up and start a fire, “brew” pour-over coffee, and sizzle bacon and eggs over a campfire or outdoor camper kitchen, awakening all the tent campers and anyone sleeping with open windows to a mouth-watering stirring of a new day.
Not us.
Fueling up for a day of birding at the Callaway Gardens Country Store
We’re heading out birding for Global Big Day, so we came to the Country Store for their famous Callaway Gardens signature grits, scrambled eggs, sausage with sage, buttermilk biscuits with muscadine jam, muscadine muffins, percolated coffee, and iced water in lidless mason jars. We finally got a window seat on the top of this mountain after all the times we’ve wanted one, and as luck would have it, it’s foggy outside and we can’t see fifty feet out. But it’s okay – we’re busy filling up on food for when the fog lifts. It’s going to be a big day full of feathered species as we work together with Merlin Bird ID and the eBird app to create checklists of bird identifications at birding hotspots nearby to help researchers track bird migration patterns and species population densities.
Praying for the fog to lift while we eat – it’s hard to go birding in foggy conditions.
I completed the free eBird Essentials course on the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology eBird website Friday night – something I’ve been meaning to do since I opened my account and created a profile – and then texted Fran Haley to see if she was planning to participate today, too. She is. It’s her birdday birthday May 13, and she and her husband are journeying to a dam to see if they can spot any eagles.
Complete eBird Essentials Course: Check
I submitted 3 checklists (one for each morning Schnoodle walk on the back loop of F. D. Roosevelt State Park Campground), with 15 species combined, before breakfast. When she texted at 6:48 (we’re both early birds), shortly after I had returned from walking the dogs on their morning outing along the back loop of the camp, Fran had already recorded 23 species. I’d prayed she would see some rare sightings on her adventures – the best birthday blessings for an avid birdwatcher!
We finished our breakfast, and right there in the Country Kitchen I found a fully stocked table of 50+ UV Protection adventure hats – just the kind I have been hoping to find. I tried several on, but I couldn’t land on a decision. Both Maureen Ingram and Stacey Shubitz made some helpful suggestions last week about hat brands – Outdoor Research and UVSkinz, and I’d gotten both too busy and too tired over the week to give either more than a passing glance. I remained as lidless as my Mason Jar after trying on several kinds and not finding one that grabbed me.
But alas, there are still birds to count and trails to hike, so off we go!
Indecision is a decision of NO.
I’ll share Part 2 of the day’s adventure – and the species I found present on Global Big Day – tomorrow. For now, we are headed over to Dowdell’s Knob to begin hiking at the trail with the boys.
Ready,
set,
let’s count birds!
Boo Radley, Fitz, and Ollie – clearly looking to help spot birds!
I’m so proud to be my mother’s daughter! She was one of a kind, ever conscientious and always protecting all of us. She was a seatbelt enthusiast, a nighttime curtain puller, and an avid door locker. So when someone tells me I’m just like her, I am reminded how fortunate I am! Remembering Mom today on this 8th Mother’s Day without her. Hug your mom if she’s still here – tomorrow holds no guarantees!
My mother in the early 1960s
My Mother's Daughter
at the Dames Ferry
dump station
at the top of the hill
two and a half days worth
of our waste
sliding down
a three inch hose
from the belly
of our camper
into the waste tank
you stepped to
the back to check
the spare tire
I looked out over
the lake
at the bottom of the hill
and panicked
thinking you, too,
might slide
ran to the truck
set the emergency brake
announcing in a high pitch
I SET THE EMERGENCY BRAKE!
for all to hear
to let everyone know you were safe
not about to get flattened
and drenched in pee
sliding all the way down
to the lake
you walked up the hill
wiping your hands with
a glove
chuckling your
secret knowing smile
satisfied with yourself
I searched your face
you raised your eyebrows
in answer
I love you
you said
kissing my cheek
and there's nothing wrong
with this
but
you
are
your
mother's
daughter
I watched a baby bluebird hatch the night of a poetry reading two weeks ago, and the trio has flown, except for one egg that never hatched. Joy and grief in the same nest. Life is like that. Laughter and tears, joy and despair.
empty nest
that tiny bluebird
I watched hatch two weeks ago
has taken to skies
one little sibling
requiem in eggshell blue
heavenly flight of its own
Everyone, it seems, was wearing a hat last weekend – at the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky and on the opposite side of the pond in England, and all points in between at those smaller parties the commonfolk threw to celebrate these events. I chose a sun hat purchased at Marshall’s for $16.99, designed by the swank San Diego Hat Company to go with my no-frills weekend, just in case anyone is wondering, and although it was tempting, I didn’t adorn it with little hot glued horses running around the brim – or oversized flowers or bows.
A fancy Kentucky Derby hat, perfect for sipping a mint julep and watching a horse race
It got me thinking about all the hats we wear. Last summer, I sent adventure hats to the coastal grandkids – to wear on the boat, at the beach, in the kayaks – anywhere adventure calls! I got the kind with a chin strap so they wouldn’t lose them.
I sent these hats to my grandkids last summer – adventure hats!
Ironically, I lost my son’s borrowed boating hat when my cap caught a breeze on a fishing trip in April. I’d needed my own chin strap.
I recently bought a new sun hat for kayaking and camping to replace the monogrammed one that a student gave me back in 2010 as a teacher gift – I’d given it a hard look and realized its age, like a teacher ready for retirement who has been worn slap down through the years. It was time for a new one!
The hat I lost boating, before it was windswept into the ocean and forever lost at sea
Camping Hat (my Kentucky Derby/Coronation Day replacement hat)
Bartholomew Cubbins knew a thing or two about hats. Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses know that head pieces such as crowns, tiaras, and hats make statements. The most famous crown of all time hung on a cross as a place in Heaven was built for us.
Kate and William sporting a tiara and a cap
Crown of Thorns – a symbol of the greatest sacrificial love of all time
A Kissing Fish hat for all our throw-backs
Golfing hats
Ice Cream Hats
Napping hats
Bicycling picnic hats
Marshmallow Roasting Hats
Swinging Bridge Hats
Stick-Your-Tongue-Out HatsUgly Sweater Run hats (with my son acting like a dancing reindeer after a morning run several years ago)
Kite Flying Hats
Birthday HatsMagical Old Silk Hat that Made a Snowman Dance
I shared a recent post where my dad entered a synagogue in Capernaum and he and his friend had forgotten to remove their Atlanta Braves caps (the monitor smiled and tactfully gestured for them to remove them), and it got me thinking about all our hats. With all the hats we wear, literally and metaphorically, what areyour favorite hats? Please share your best hats and hat stories in the comments, and if you have any great hiking hat suggestions, I beg your secrets!
We were camping at Dames Ferry in Georgia this weekend when our 3 Schnoodles became captivated with the ducks flitting about in the waters of Lake Juliette. The stargazer window over the bed of our Little Guy Max never fails to hold wonder - whether stars or ducks, whether night or morning. There is always an exciting world to behold outside that window!
Move Over, Stargazers!
duckgazer window
curious schnoodles camping
flop-eared wonderment
My father, Reverend Dr. Felix Haynes, Jr., shares his sermon from a few weeks ago, as he reminisces about Holy Ground and his Holy Land travels with my late mother, Miriam, where they walked the streets of Capernaum. They traveled with members of their church to the Holy Land several times, most recently when they lived on Hilton Head Island, SC in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Capurnaum
ON CAPERNAUM
The setting of today's sermon is Capernaum, a very strategic location for travelers in Jesus’ day, always bustling and busy. It was a well-constructed city built 200 years before Jesus’ birth. The structures were made of unique materials, stone and plaster. Capernaum is situated on the picturesque Sea of Galilee. Just to the north, an easy walk begins the grassy slopes of the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field…”
I remember well our visit on tour. As you enter, you see tall trellises with Bougainvillea growing in splendid floral beauty. Miriam walked over for a close look at the deep red and purple blooms, her eyes sparkling in complete wonder. Laurie Atkins, a member of our church traveling with us, joined her and pondered the amazing beauty.
As your walk the cobblestone streets, you observe the archaeological structures and artifacts that tell a story of rich biblical history. Capernaum is an education in the ministry of Jesus.
The two most striking sites are the synagogue and the ruins of the home of Peter’s mother-in-law, where Jesus healed the palsied man. There is a bench on which Jesus probably sat when he taught at the synagogue on that memorable day. The flat roof was made of a sturdy mud-cement compound. This would be a “patio” where on warm evenings one could catch the sea breeze.
Holy ground!
Jesus considered Capernaum a “home base.” The house is a three-room structure, one for sleeping, one for cooking and eating, and one for animals. There was also a courtyard. Today, a church has been constructed over the ruins of this house with a centered glass floor area where you can look down and see the interior where Jesus healed the palsied man. When my colleague, Woodrow Hudson, and I entered that church, we had forgotten to take off our Atlanta Braves caps. The monitoring priest smiled and tactfully reminded us to take off our hats.
Holy ground!
I did a short message on the four friends who brought their friends to Jesus to our tour group.
We moved about reflecting, remembering, and privately worshipping. I joined my dear wife who said, “This is one of the most beautiful and sacred places I have ever been.”
Holy ground.
And I stand there again every time I remember Capernaum.
We got on the bus to travel north toward Mt. Hermon. This scene remains vivid in my mind: Laurie Atkins looked out the window at the flowers in the field on the mount of the beatitudes, still struck by the Bougainvillea of Capernaum and musing. Mr. Laurie Atkins was the town engineer of Hilton Head, responsible for irrigation and all the lovely landscapes in the main streets of Hilton Head Island in those days. He said to me, “I wish I could get truck loads of dirt from this place to take home with me.”
Holy ground!
I have truck loads of memory from Capernaum, …the most beautiful and sacred memories…”
Bougainvillea at the entrance to Capernaum, the Town of Jesus
Male American Goldfinch at my window feeder on the Johnson Funny Farm – so close you can see his knobby knees!
One of the greatest pleasures in my life here on the Johnson Funny Farm in rural middle Georgia is birdwatching from the comfy chair by the window in my reading room. Each spring, we deep clean our feeders and add a new type to the all-you-can-eat bird garden buffet. Two years ago, I added four clear acrylic window feeders – and now we each have a coveted seat right by the window, with a front-row view.
The American Goldfinch is one of my favorite visitors. We also have Cardinals, House Finches, Pine Warblers, Indigo Buntings, Black-Capped Chickadees. and different varieties of nuthatches. sparrows, and wrens who love these smaller covered feeders. When it rains, they like to sit “inside” like the kids in The Cat in the Hat and look out their “window.”
We can get so close to our birds that we can see if they are missing any feathers or tell if they might have been in a fight. If we had ever wondered whether birds have tiny teeth, we could tell that, too. We ease up to the window and take a mannequin stance, careful not to throw our breath fog on the glass. The reflection from the outside makes it easy to remain undetected for long periods of time, watching our little frequenters blissfully fill their bellies with seeds, nuts, and berries.
A wide variety of birdseed mixes brings the fanciest charms and flocks and hosts and herds (I’m including a fuller list of specific bird group names at the bottom of this post). I found a chart at Pike Nurseries that has been helpful in matching seed, feeder: and bird type to maximize our traffic. For example, I look at the foot perch size, the encased wire openings for smaller birds, and the opening sizes where the seeds come out. All of those, along with location of the feeders, make a difference in all the species we have been able to attract. When Ace Hardware has a Buy One, Get One Free sale on brand-name birdseed in my small town, they know I’ll be there to get a cart full.
And these winged angels sing the most glorious songs of food blessings to their creator that I want to name them all Little Tommy Tucker!
If your mother doesn’t have a window feeder for the birds, it would make a lovely gift next weekend, along with a variety of seeds! I’ll be filling my feeders and remembering my mother, who shared with me the sheer joy of bird watching.
This chart makes attracting birds easy by telling which types of foods they like.
List of bird group names retrieved from: http://birding-world.com/names-bird-groups/
Aerie of hawks
Band of jays
Bazaar of guillemots
Bevy of larks
Bevy of quail
Bevy of swans (when in flight)
Boil of hawks (when in flight)
Bouquet of pheasants
Brace of grouse
Brace of pheasants (when dead)
Brood of chicks
Building of Rooks
Bunch of ducks (when on water)
Bunch of waterfowl
Cast of falcons
Cast of hawks
Chain of Bobolinks
Charm of finches
Charm of hummingbirds
Cluster of Knots
Colony of gulls
Colony of vultures
Company of parrots
Squadron of pelicans
Company of widgeon
Concentration of kingfishers
Congregation of plovers
Constable of Ravens
Convocation of eagles
Covert of coots
Covey of grouse
Covey of partridge
Covey of ptarmigan
Deceit of Lapwings
Descent of woodpeckers
Desert of Lapwings
Dissimulation of birds
Dole of doves
Drift of quail
Dropping of ducks (when on water)
Exhaltation of larks
Fall of Woodcock
Flamboyance of Flamingos
Flight of cormorants
Flight of doves
Flight of Goshawks
Flight of swallows
Fling of Dunlins
Flock of birds
Flock of birdwatchers
Flush of Mallards
Gaggle of geese (when on ground)
Gathering of birdwatchers
Gulp of Cormorants
Herd of cranes
Herd of Curlews
Herd of wrens
Horde of crows
Host of sparrows
Huddle of penguins
Jubilee of eagles
Kettle of hawks
Kit of pigeons (when in flight)
Knob of waterfowl
Murder of crows
Murmuration of Starlings
Muster of Peacocks
Muster of turkeys
Mustering of storks
Mutation of thrushes
Nye of pheasants
Ostentation of Peacocks
Pack of grouse
Paddling of ducks (when on water)
Parliament of owls
Parliament of Rooks
Peep of chickens
Chattering of Choughs
Pitiousness of doves
Pitying of turtledoves
Plump of waterfowl
Plump of wildfowl
Quarrel of sparrows
Raft of coots
Raft of ducks (when on water)
Raft of loons
Rafter of turkeys
Richness of Purple Martins
Rookery of penguins
Scold of jays
Sedge of Bitterns
Siege of Bitterns
Siege of cranes
Siege of herons
Skein of geese (when in flight)
Sord of Mallards
Spring of teals
Stand of flamingos
Strand of Silky Flycatchers
Sute of Mallards
Team of ducks (when in flight)
Team of geese (when in flight)
Tiding of magpies
Tittering of magpies
Trembling of finches
Trip of Widgeon
Trip of wildfowl
Trouble of hummingbirds
Unkindness of Ravens
Volery of birds
Walk of snipe
Watch of nightingales
Wdge of swans (when in flight)
Wedge of geese (when in flight)
Whisper of snipe
Whiteness of swans (when in flight)
Wing of plovers
Wisdom of owls
One of my 2023 goals is spending more time outdoors, taking more notes in nature observations, and learning more about the ecosystem and the creatures that do jobs I never fully appreciated until I became a little more educated on their roles in this great universe. A couple of days ago, I shared the plans for our bat hollow. Our first bat box has been installed, with more to follow. Today, though, is about another mosquito controller. Purple Martins, like bats, are environmentally-friendly critters who help control mosquito populations.
We weren’t sure how “involved” it would be to assemble a purple martin house. These houses are generally either a string of gourds hanging high, or a house reminiscent of a high-dollar condo situated on one of those tropical islands where the drinks all come with those little umbrellas and everyone wears floppy sun hats and sunglasses with cat-eye bling that sparkles as they sit back and sip in the breeze. Gourdless, we bought the high-dollar condo for them and discovered the pole was the same price as the house (12-20 feet in the air these places must be), AND has to be cemented into the ground.
So we took the unopened box camping with us one weekend, grabbing a multi-tool as an afterthought in case we needed a Phillips Head screwdriver or something. We found it remarkably easy to put the house together, and while we needed more than two hands, much of the structure was tabbed and punched so that it didn’t require a tool except on the roof. We put it together and brought it home. My husband fought mosquitoes with his bare hands while using post-hole diggers to set it deep in the ground, and then dumped a bag of Quikrete in to let it set overnight. We raised it to the heavens the next day, and now we await the migration that has, probably, mostly already happened. The late stragglers will find a vacancy in the inn…..we hope.
Rent-Free Purple Martin Condominiums, Johnson Funny Farm, April 2023
Johnson Funny Farm bee haven, April 2023 – baby bees at top right corner and entering bottom left tube
Forget Lonesome Dove. This one’s all about the lonesome bees – and putting food on Earth’s tables. One of my 2023 goals is spending more time outdoors, taking more notes in nature observations, and learning more about the ecosystem and the creatures that do jobs I’ve taken for granted. A couple of summers ago, we bought a bee house to provide safe spots for solitary bees like mason bees and leaf cutter bees to nest. These pollinators help plants like fruits and vegetables thrive. We have enjoyed watching the little bees come and go – they’re so cute – and so helpful! In rural areas like ours where agriculture is the name of the game, bees matter! Help with pollination – NOT PESTICIDES! We are doing one small part to make a difference – and watching it happen thrills our souls!
Lonesome Bee Haven
lonesome bee haven
apiculture hideaway
pollinator post
baby bees buzzing
busy building businesses~
hungry world feeders
Common Threads 