Bird orgy

We have herons (or maybe they are cranes) that live around here.  We've seen them flying around as long as we've been coming up here, and that's been quite a while since Danny and Linda have had their place for about 13 years now.  They've landed on the boat docks and made the dogs crazy.  They've done fly-bys that will scare the poop out of you if you aren't expecting it.  I mean, these are HUGE birds, after all. 

Well, now we have them nesting just across the lake from us.  For the longest, we didn't know WHAT IN THE WORLD was making all of that gosh-awful racket, but Marty told John last week that it is the herons (or cranes.  I googled both, and honestly, I still don't know what we have.)  Anywho, Marty said they were there, so John got out the binoculars.  At first we couldn't find them, but Sunday morning I got the binoculars out again and found them.  At that time, there were two in the tree. 

I heard them squawking when I was sitting on the porch a while ago, so I got the binoculars out again.  Knowing where they are made it much easier to find them, but you can easily see them without the binoculars.  This time, I bet there were six on the nest.  One of them kept sticking its neck up and the others were "bowing" to it.  (Maybe that's the Momma Bird????)  No lie...that one had its neck stretched out as far as it would go, and the others were gathered around flapping their wings.  Looked like an orgy to me.  Not that I would know what an orgy looks like since I've never been involved in one and never intend to be involved in one.  My only experience with them is what I've seen in movies.

I need to google to find out how long it will be before the babies are hatched.

Speaking of hatched babies...time before last when we were up here, we saw that a bird had built a nest in the bathroom window.  John was going to clean the nest out until he saw the eggs.  It looked like there were five or six total.  We kept watching, but we never have seen a momma bird anywhere near the nest.  We figured she had abandoned it.  After I came in from watching the heron/crane orgy, I went to the bathroom (okay, so maybe that's TMI, but hey...we all do it) and I thought I heard cheeping.  So I pulled the shower curtain back and stood on the tub to look.  I could have sworn I saw something moving, so I looked a little closer.  (It's kind of hard to look very close because of the screen and the way the nest is built.)  Sure 'nuff, a baby bird was in there!  Just to make sure again, I put my ear right next to the screen and heard the little cheep.  I think I saw an egg that hadn't hatched, but I really couldn't tell how many babies there might be.  So I guess momma bird hadn't abandoned the nest after all.  Either that or it's been so dang hot they hatched without her sititng on the nest.  LOL 

I thought we were going to get some rain, but alas, I think it has gone around us.  Again.  We need some rain SO badly!  The lake is down about two feet.  That's normal for this time of year because Alabama Power Co. uses the water from this lake to cool the towers at one of the steam plants.  I still hate to see the level go down this early. 

I guess that's about it for now.  I stopped to get some barbecue on my way up, so I'm about to make a sandwich for supper.

Don't forget...KEEP DREAMING!