Any Mudflat is Better than None!

 And this one is more or less west of the road so the sun is behind me viewed from the road. I say as though this was a permanent situation. Unfortunately it'll probably not be here long. This field, that adjoins the ~west side of our community, is now owned by The Villages. Their recent grading produced this birdwatcher's delight. It'll likely soon be reconfigured into a subdivision.

This morning, though, I saw egrets, Great and Snowy, Glossy Ibis, White Ibis, Sandhill Cranes, various herons, Killdeers, both Yellowlegs and a raft of smaller sandpipers I couldn't identify. Plus a kestrel and our resident red-shouldered hawk. And Meadowlands on the wire and bluebirds in the air. I dreamt of this in retirement. 

There are countless ponds, drainage basins, infiltration basins... around us but virtually none of any use to wading birds. We're at the epicenter of The Villages. Their priority for pond management is a clean esthetic; no messy edges. That means steep slopes on the margins to prevent emergent vegetation and definitely no mud. I'll just enjoy this as long as it lasts.🙂

Rain at Last!

 

Sitting on the porch enjoying the rain

You have to be a gardener to know how wonderful I feel listening to the first rainfall in weeks of mid-90's temperatures. No doubt golfers are disappointed, but we gardeners are ecstatic and will sleep well tonight.

We water, and that keeps the garden alive but there's nothing like real rain. I've always hand watered my gardens with a goal of keeping the plant alive, not happy. Carrying them through, uninjured, to the next rain. Well we've done it again and I'm feeling really good. Eventually, likely in the next month, the weather will relax and we'll be looking at high temps in the 80's not the mid-90's. That'll make everything easier.