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A tiny visitor for dinner

June 03, 2008|Jean Brody

A few nights ago we had family over for dinner. One of the guests, Jimmy, knows more about birds than anyone I know, so when he ran to the den window exclaiming, "Oh my gosh, Jean, look!" I came running. He pointed to two of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen. They were dining at one of our 13 feeders out back, and the azure blue of their feathers was breathtaking, especially sitting next to some brilliant red cardinals and the pure yellow gold on the golden finches. If you are a bird lover like myself, you'd understand why the scene took my breath away.

Jimmy said, "Those are Indigo Buntings, and they are extremely rare. I've never actually seen one." And neither had I. Sarah, his daughter, recently gave me a "Birds of Kentucky" book, so we immediately grabbed it, looked up Indigo Bunting, and, sure enough, there were pictures and everything about them, including how rare they are.

You know, this whole last year I have been quite ill and was housebound most of the time. I just can't tell you how much it meant to me to turn our farm into a bird sanctuary and study each and every kind of bird that chose to live with us out here on the hill. I knew I had never seen an Indigo Bunting before, but I was so proud, and yet humbled to find that our yard was safe enough and offered enough of the right feed to lure these beautiful little birds to come for a visit and hopefully stay for a while.

The amazing part of this story is that the very next morning, I opened the Lexington Herald-Leader and there, on the front page of one of the sections was a magnificent picture of none other than an Indigo Bunting and how a few had been cited in Lexington lately.

So, I just wanted to tell you that if you are a bird watcher and want to feast your eyes on something breathtaking, just come on over here. I just hope they continue to like us and remain with us.

By the way, remember I told you about the big black bird that destroyed the sweet little wren nest on the front porch? Well, I cleaned it all up and the mama, broken hearted, has gone away. You will not believe this, but yesterday another bird (I don't know what it is yet) has started to hang out on that little ledge where the nest was. He just sits up there for long periods. He is not building a new nest or having a party. He is just checking out the joint, I guess. Do you suppose he will build another nest for his lady friend? Jimmy says not. I will let you know.

The view from the hill is wondrous.

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