A little birding

Today, Max is at Olivia's house and will be brought home by Olivia's mother, so Ellen and I have the day for ourselves. Ellen has been cooking, and I finished O Pioneers, Cather 's first novel in the "pioneer trilogy." It is darker, more tragic, than My Antonia, but has the same exaltation of the land at its heart. In a way, in both novels, the land in its unspoiled beauty, power and mystery, is the main character.

Toward late morning we made a short birding expedition to a wetlands area just a mile or two from Paul's. We saw red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds in abundance, blue herons, pelicans, Canada geese, coots, an osprey, and maybe a sandhill crane. We both had binoculars. It was very satisfying. 

      An osprey on its nest

At our feet was an abundance of salsify globes and flax blossoms. I loved the way the delicate wisps of salsify filaments reflected the sunlight.

Salsify seed globe-like a huge dandelion.

      A cluster of gone-by salsify 

             Flax