First Baptist Church of Herndon

Nature Surprises

Linda Soller | Sep 18, 2023

If we have learned anything living in our current location all these years, it’s that nature surprises you.

It was a rain threatening Saturday afternoon. I sat in my sunroom (although in the woods no room is really sunny) watching the bird feeder and listening to thunder in the distance. There was a sudden flicker of motion to my right. As I turned, I saw a hummingbird investigating a small uninhabited red bird house. He briefly fluttered there then zoomed to the crepe myrtle tree (one of the few flowering plants in our yard). Then he zoomed back to the birdhouse. Seconds later he zoomed off. Maybe he thought the house was a feeder, it is red. After months of overthinking the perfect location, my hummingbird feeder was still inside. The next day I hung it out beside the red bird house. Fingers crossed!

Later that night, when the thunder and rain had reached our neighborhood, I was walking past our glass front door. There on the jute rug was a fluffy curled-up sleeping fox! We guessed he liked the dry conditions. It was a good hour before a noise startled him. When he decided to leave, we could see he was a healthy juvenile. Maybe he was one of the kits from the spring?

Sunday afternoon there were six wrens splashing in my mom’s smallish birdbath, all at the same time. It looked more like a public pool on a hot day than a quiet place to snatch a sip of cool water. We couldn’t believe our eyes.

On Monday I returned home from the store. As I got out of my car to take the groceries in the house, I heard our local Coopers Hawk somewhere pretty nearby. He wasn’t frantic but he was certainly telling me something. I stood and looked in the treetops as he screeched. Finally in a quiet moment I said, I don’t see you, but I wish I could. Another screech drew my gaze down a bit to a branch about twenty feet over my head and there he sat. After a pause, and with a still softer screech, he flew off.

Nature surprises us every day. You just need to take the time to look and listen.

Be the love in the world  : )   Linda