A lazy afternoon

​It is roughly 1:00 in the afternoon and I have been observing without binoculars or without a camera . Just my eyes.....my ears.... I wait and nature comes to me. As I sit here in the outside patio on my oversized cushion (why do they make these so large?)....hummingbirds  flutter around me making that 'hummingbird' buzz..... they continually chase after our garden of pollen. A quick trip from one open flower to another... no rush, no worries....just a dab of pollen for their effort. I read once that the color of pollen, whether it was just 'used up' or rejuvenated after re-establishing itself actually changes to the hummingbirds eye. That is how they know to partake of or not.....the color.... some university made a study on. Couldn't tell you which one though. 

Bopping all around me are several wrens chatting away as the recent spring addition to the clan is in place and demanding food. I find it amazing how I can putter around in my garden and hardly come up with a respectable insect/worm but these birds can use their beaks and just about with every dig into the soil, they find a mortice to feed the young. Never fails....what instinct do they possess that I have no knowledge of? What sense, ....hidden. 

Oh, I saw an oriole.....just poking out of a black olive tree. The orange of spring decked out in with a solid black....yet the oriole springs back into the cover of foliage to be lost once more. I pick myself up and grab a few oranges we have scattered around our house in various collections of table plates. Taking two, I slice in half with my goal to entice that oriole back. 

I grab the top and bottom half's or is that bottom and top half's...? not sure, ....don't think it makes a difference. Going outside I pick up my favorite hammer  (I only have one) and a few good nails and find an unused portion of an empty wooden ladder rung. Carefully with the nails successfully impaling each bottom / half combo.....I tap them in. There they sit now, in anticipation of being on the bottom of the pecking order in nature. 

I have tried this before, in various houses and spots. No success though for myself although I have visited enough places around the world none-the-less where this works. Perhaps I have mixed up the bottom and top half or plain slice it wrongly down the middle. When sliced and when viewed, they look rich and juicy and enticing but will see how it might go this round. 

I turn Merlin on and being a human, I 'allow' this 'AI' generated piece of whatever, to connect to the sounds around me. One by one a name pops up...the list grows. A bird is highlighted by having a repeat performance while others never seem to stop as they continuously speak to me. In a short few minutes my list grows to over a dozen.... I imagine if I wake up at dawn my list would be 20-30 quite easily, but now, in the mid afternoon.....I am limited to a dirty dozen, no make that a bakers dozen. 

I grab a pair of binoculars from inside and replace myself on the oversized cushion. I bring the bins up and view my impaled oranges. All there....no change, no movement....oh, perhaps an insect I see but not my intended game. A few 'fly-by's' overhead, most likely doves of sorts. Natures fodder. Against the wall I witness the wrens busy at it. Oh the poor parent or is that just the mom. In human years I wonder how old the young wren is as the mom has to take care of once more, twice....well, it seems to be a non-stop occupation. Is the young a teen yet? Can and when will it fend for itself? A cardinal clasps on to a branch right above me....a female. I know we have several pair who own our property. I slap a mosquito, .....missed. But I gave it a good scare as I know it won't be back. No, they won't....I know that. 

Oranges still in place...coming on 2:05. Might be time for a nap. That would be a sure way to lure the orioles. Maybe work on the crossword from the May issue of The Atlantic as it is difficult and if my mind wanders I would alleviate the pressure that might build up, my hidden aura of an expectation within my universe. With the pressure of my Aura off, the Orioles would certainly take up on the orange invitation as all birds do sense what we do not. But dang-it-all....those oranges are there and I just bet you Mr Oriole that you still are hanging around, staring at me thru the leaves, waiting for my eyes to close so you know it is safe. As I am going to do anything to you, surely you jest.