Sign of the Bunting

After a marathon work week, I have resurfaced feeling [mostly] rested and looking forward to my extra day off tomorrow. I think I'll finally turn my attention to my layered skirt project again.

We've been out walking between rain storms the past few days and while splashing through a puddle in my Wellies, I wondered out loud, "When do you think the indigo buntings will come back to the farm?" Literally not one minute later out of the corner of my eye, I spied one:
Then we heard it's funny, buzzy song and we knew, we knew that a cool thing had just happened for us: A whole year spent in one place and knowing it well enough to just sense when a seasonal inhabitant was due back for a few months. It was a very Ellen Meloy The Anthropology of Turquoise kind of moment:

"The true heart of a place does not come in a week's vacation. To know it well, one must 'wait its occasions'--follow full seasons and cycles, a retreating snowpack, a six-year drought, a Pondersoa pine eating up a porch."
If you've not read this book, I highly recommend it. If you've not yet been out birding this spring, I highly recommend that too.

Although I didn't get a photo (not for lack of trying) I also got to add a new bird to my list this morning while we were up at Humpback Rocks, a Black and White Warbler.