The doldrums…

I had to check the meaning of the word doldrums, just in case.  It’s a period of inactivity, stagnation, or depression, according to Siri.  That pretty much describes me for the past couple of days.  For no particular reason beyond what we all are dealing with these last weeks.  And also for no particular reason I woke up this morning and surprised myself by getting out early for the sunrise.  It felt good.

Then I stood in my driveway and spied on the bluebirds who have been zooming into and out of the bird house lately.  They haven’t been perching, and I haven’t seen them together, so are there eggs in the nest or are they feeding babies?  If they are then I can’t imagine when they were sitting on eggs since they both seemed to be out and about daily.  Or I lost track of time.  But I looked up the incubation period and it’s 12 to 14 days, and mom sits on the eggs and dad delivers dinner to her while incubating.  So that’s what I think is going on here.  And the surprise to read was that they commonly brood twice in a season.

I didn’t watch them for long because I was afraid that Dad was skittish about coming to feed Mom in the house because I was watching from the shelter of my open car door in the driveway.  In reality it was probably the maintenance crew with the mowers and edgers that were giving him second thoughts.

In between bluebird visits I took the feature photo of the Northern Mockingbird who entertains me as I walk the park in the early evening.  They have an amazing variety of calls, which I’ve tried and failed to record on my phone.  You probably have them in your neighborhood since they are everywhere.