Has something changed? What has drawn a variety of birds wheeling and swooping around our back easement? The vibrant blue of a male blue jay has been scarce until today. The birds seemed intent but not distressed. I don’t know what’s different except that the calendar has changed to November but birds don’t generally read calendars. Is it the cool, fresh air? We’ve been buoyed by that for awhile. Maybe the local cats are involved. I don’t think anyone is feeding the birds’ expensive tastes. When I’m outdoors, I’m aware that there are so many aspects of God’s creation, so many potential factors of influence that I don’t know anything about.
The red hibiscus seems happy to be back in its winter home, blooming twice today behind the Hawaiian Ti plant. When I brought the beauty queen in, I heard a high “singing.”
“That’s pleasant. We have our own natural soloist.” Then the cricket’s “song” became louder—and shriller.
“That cricket will eat your plants! We’ve got to get it out of here,” my husband insisted.
Oh yeah, there’s that. But where was it? The loud “singing” directed our search to the hibiscus but our eyes couldn’t see what our ears heard.
Then we brought in the large flashlight and there it was—a tiny brown cricket with a “voice” that belied its size. Experience with the huge green grasshoppers taught me how to capture and remove this mini. I moved quickly out through the door and into the garden to grab my garden gloves and an empty plastic pot then rushed back in to scoop the interloper into the pot. Out again I rushed and sent it flying over the rail into the bush below. Ah, relief.
No comments:
Post a Comment