Rain, Rain Go Away

I hesitate to say this. I wish it would stop raining! I say that I hesitate because so many of our family and friends live in the Alabama and Georgia regions where there is a drought. We here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, though, are water-logged. Our backyard has become a marsh of sorts, but the real bayou is several blocks back! The poor earthworms are frequent visitors to our driveway, trying to escape the deluge in their homes. (Yes, I DO move them before backing out in the car - probably much to the amazement of passersby as I carry their little bodies draped over a found stick to the edge of the grass).

There is one group of little folks who just LOVE all this wet weather: the frogs. Their chorus can be heard day or night in any yard, roadside, parking lot or wooded spot. I think there shall be no shortage of new frogbottoms on the windows this spring (you can read about Frogbottom and his friends at www.mississippiwild.com). That is, unless the Great Egrets cut their numbers too much. These gorgeous, huge white birds can be found often alongside Highway 90 here hunting for dinner in the flooded ditches. I think, though, that they have their work cut out for them!

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Friday, February 15th, began Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and Audubon's Great Backyard Bird Count. Wanting to do our part, we "worked" the area on Saturday, the 16th. An American Coot was found merrily working away on his plant he'd dived for on the little lake near my parents' home, a Tufted Titmouse proclaimed his territory in our front yard, and Front Beach in Ocean Springs added laughing gulls, ring-billed gulls and a few pelicans to the tally. By far, though, the Inner Harbor was tops on the list. We think the Brown Pelicans knew it was the weekend of the count, and they all came in to be counted! There were at least 64 of them throughout the harbor area. Hardly a post didn't have a pelican on top. A few laughing gulls managed a spot here and there on remaining posts. Two gorgeous Common Loons, two Horned Grebes and 3 Double-breasted Cormorants swam the waters of the harbor watching the action.

We can't leave out our winged friends at Gulf Islands National Seashore in the Davis Bayou section. Mr. and Mrs. Osprey courted in their tree, a couple of Horned Grebes, two Tri-colored Herons (I prefer the old name - Louisiana Heron - myself), 3 Great Egrets, 2 Snowy Egrets and a Mockingbird and Eastern Bluebird rounded out the count.

Oops, I almost forgot the huge number of birds just offshore on a sandbar at East Beach in Ocean Springs. There were easily in excess of 50 Brown Pelicans and 2 White Pelicans in that group.
Brown Pelicans have just come of the Endangered List. It's a real joy to see them thriving once again.

What fun it was to see who we could spot and enter them online into the count. If you miss this years' count, there's always next year. You can read all about it at, checking to see which birds were spotted in your area at: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc .

Birds, Birds Everywhere!

What a lovely Sunday here in South Mississippi today! The temperature around 70 degrees brought out the humans, but so did it bring out the birds. Laughing gulls and brown pelicans jockeyed for position around the fish cleaning trough at the Inner Harbor in Ocean Springs. After the feeding session, a young brown pelican resting on the dock allowed a young couple with two small children to venture close and get a good look at him. Their van sported an Ohio tag. It may've been their very first view of a pelican. Perhaps the pelican sensed that and sat still to let them get a good look. We expect that will be a topic of discussion for a long time to come for them.

We ventured east to Pascagoula to the lake in front of Singing River Hospital. This little lake is a popular spot for many types of birds. With crackers in hand, we exited the van. Laughing gulls had already perched nearby. We suspect they were hopeful that the van occupants brought food. They were in luck. Two boxes of crackers and two bags of cookies later, we felt we'd fed an entire population of laughing gulls, ring-billed gulls, mallards, domestic ducks of various types, greater scaups and American Coots. The ducks and geese were only fortunate to get a few bites in the absence of the gulls. For reasons unknown to man, periodically gulls will panic, fly away in a large circle and finally return. There needn't be any real threat. At this, the rest of the lake occupants try to grab a few bites before their aggressive counterparts return.

Ah, what a perfect day on the Gulf Coast!

A Long Time Away

It has been awhile since my last post. At this return, there is joy in my heart. My precious mom battled an unknown illness for several months. After a diagnosis of malignancy, we have now found that she suffers from Waldenstrom's Anemia. The strange name was one none of us had ever heard of prior to this week. What a joy to find that it is a treatable disease that she can live with for many, many years. After such uncertainty for so long, she and we rejoice that God has indeed been watching over her, just as He promises He will!

If you've ever experienced times like these, and many of you have, you know that the outside world around you takes on even a more beautiful presence after times that have been difficult. It's a bit like seeing the sunlight after coming out of a long, dark tunnel. It seems brighter than you can remember it having ever been. Yesterday was such a day. As a "bonus" from God, I spotted a white pelican resting in the water between Gautier and Pascagoula as I travelled east from here. He was like a bright, white, lone beacon telling me, "Everything IS going to be OK!"