20 June 2012 - Solstice Surprises

Happy Solstice! First day of summer and ours came in cool and sweet. After two weeks in the 80s and 90s,  this year's summer solstice crept in barely reaching 74. Hot in the sun, otherwise cool. A good day for working outside. In this case, working outside meant staining the fence. 

After dithering for several months about what color stain to use (sampled three different grays; a light, soft yellow; and a sage-y green). I finally made a decision and chose clear. I liked how the cedar pickets looked when they were wet from watering,  picking up a deep golden glow. Now the fence looks all gold and bright. I am liking it. With the clear oil you can still see all the grain and the color variations of the wood. We slopped the penetrating oil on five and a half panels this evening. And we still have another five and a half to go. 

I am sure you are wondering what my solstice surprises are! They were fabulous--custom made for someone like me. 

Surprise number one. When we were painting the fence, I heard little tiny cheeps. Looked around and saw our first quail babies. Awww.  Twelve little ping-pong balls with legs. So darned cute. Mom and dad were keeping their flock together and teaching them how to scratch in the dirt. At one point they were taking the babies down a flight of stairs in the back yard.  

The babies got tired about halfway down and were crawling under dad. It was hilarious. The babies would get under his belly then work their way up under his wings and disappear. You could see his feathers ruffling as they poked their heads through his wing feathers. 

Another group of babies were trying the same thing with mom, but she wouldn't hunker down for them, she just let them rest under her body. It was very sweet to see and funny since you could see all the babies' legs under her belly, but no bodies.  How many legs can you count in this picture?  The answer is four chicks' worth of legs. 

Solstice surprise number two was absolutely amazing. Jack was in the kitchen cooking ribs (yum!) and I was cleaning up the brushes from painting. I just happened to look up and saw a perfect V of huge white birds come over the top of Mt. Olympus. I yelled for Jack and grabbed my camera. They were flying very high and it was difficult to get them in focus. When the sun hit their bellies they sparkled like jewels in the sky. When they banked away from the sun, the entire flock disappeared. It was eerie and beautiful. As they soared north, the vee disintegrated and they flew in circles for a while, before heading east over the ridge toward Millcreek Canyon.

Wow! Thanks to the Sibley Guide to Birds, I now know these were American White Pelicans. B-b-b-ut what?  Lost? Stolen? Strayed?
Where were they coming from?  Where were they going? All I know for sure is that it was an incredible thrill to see this.