Here is a copy of an email i sent to the children of Mark and Loraine Martin that I want to share with all of you -
-- Children - get out there and see what God has done - It is so blessed to see His fingerprints - one of the lessons God teaches us about Himself through nature is His awesomeness - the more you learn about nature the more you see that you do not know - same with God - you can not build a box big enough to hold Him - our human brains (as amazing as they are) can never understand His greatness, His goodness, or His beauty. As one of my dear friends often says "We just can't wrap our minds around Him." -- also you may want to know that the menagerie at our house is growing. We have 2 parakeets, 2 love birds, 2 cockatiels, 1 red eared slider turtle, 1 yellow belly slider turtle, 1 painted turtle, a garter snake, about 10 earthworms, the 6 wood frog tadpoles you saw at Root's, and many stinkbugs (that we do not want) - (even Charles the garter snake won't eat them - but I swallowed one with my coffee two weeks ago - ugg!!!!) Lord willing tomorrow night I will pick up two African clawed frogs. and we are still trying to find a large talking bird for a "cheap" price. (you can pray that someone will donate one) Remember that you can send your "nature reports" to me and I will send you another Creator Card to add to your collection.
This is a male Bobolink in full breeding plumage. I "shot" him at Middle Creek last week. Bobolinks used to be common in Lancaster County but not anymore - they are ground nesters and modern farming practices have cut down their habitat greatly. Look these guys up in a book or the Internet - they have the longest migration of all the song birds I know about. They winter in Argentina.
We went to York County to pick up a microscope and set of prepared nature slide that was given to us and found this robin nest in the shrubs in front of the house of our new friends. Look closely there is an egg and a very recently hatched chick. This reminds me about a poem that our children learned in first or second grade.
"We have a little secret, just we three
The Robin, me, and the sweet Cherry tree
The Robin told the tree and the tree told me"
(It went something like that - If you know it -send me a copy)
Here is the American Bittern I mentioned in the email. When he knows your around he raises his bill in there air and rocks back an forth like a reed in the wind. I have been told that he is a very shy bird but we got within twenty feet of him before he walked away. Thank you to Dick Brown who told us about this bird on his pond near Mount Gretna.
Here is a Bob White Quail, I have seen many before but not in the wild. This picture was taken on the Myron and John Dietz farm in York County (near Wrightsville). I suspect that he was a "farm raised" bird that was released for hunters because he did not run for cover but stayed on the edge of the road while I followed him. What a treat it would have been to hear him but he was not in the mood to talk.
Thanks for reading the blog and GET OUT to see what God is doing. After all He did all of this for you.
