I was just awakened, snoozing on my ol' couch, by loud croaking just outside my new front door here in Port Townsend. A Christmas frog!
You see, I've recently moved from my parents house ("Alzheimer's Acre", as I have referred to it over the past two years) to a studio apartment just a few minutes away from the folks, so I hopefully can still help them without going insane in a constant atmosphere of blame and paranoia, which is what my still lovable parents have descended into. Like they say on the airlines, in case of an emergency, put the oxygen mask on yourself first, so you can help your children.
Well, anyhow, with help from friendly family , I've moved into this little new place. As I've posted about before, I've wandered thru the Port Townsend nights from my parents house in search of a massive spring frog chorus off in the distance - Pacific Chorus Frogs. Some of us yokels just call 'em tree frogs . Luckily I've moved into that neighborhood. My first night in my new digs I heard a tree frog croaking away, like today- a good omen I thought. I love frogs. Spring should be exciting.
Today, back at the Acre to fix up Christmas dinner, Dad was complaining about the placement of the hummingbird feeder on the deck rail, or at least Mom said he had been. Helpful reminder - don't have your parents get dementia at the same time: it's like mixing common household chemicals together with dangerous results. Of course I know that's stupid. Nobody wants or plans for dementia. Just don't argue, or try to reason with the demented - it backfires badly.
Anyway, I went out to move the feeder a few feet down the rail, and was treated with an amazing view of a male Anna's Hummingbird in great light, from about 18 inches away. The hungry little sucker wasn't about to be put off by me moving the feeder, so I got a close-up light show of it's iridescent gorget.
Meanwhile, in the background, the local Bald Eagle's were flapping about. One was carrying a largish branch up into it's nest tree. I remember noting fairly recent tweeters post about folks seeing this sort of thing lately.
Jeff GibsonPort Townsend Wa