Birds in the rain

Last Saturday I was blessed to watch the birds in the rain. 
It began in the spring as Anna and the kids were going through their science studies.  They decided that we needed some bird feeders.  The first item to go up was a homemade bird bath.  At Family Camp the kids made bird feeders out of plastic water bottles.  The tree with a climbing ladder is now a bird hang out too. 

On Saturday Anna and the kids went to Muskegon for a day with her uncle and aunt and our friends Diane and Kathi Leigh.  I had a wedding near Traverse City.  In the morning the rain was off and on.  I sat near the big bay window looking to the east and writing.  The drapes were pulled back and I was able to watch the birds do their thing.  Cardinals, chickadees, blue jays they were all alike under the canopy of the maple tree, dry and playful, enjoying the feeders and the seeds on the ground. 

Occasionally a bird would fly up to a branch and down would tumble a brief shower of water.  The bird wouldn't usually stay on the first branch, it would leap from branch to branch, so you'd see three brief little jumps and subsequent little showers.  It was a marvelous picture, a graceful picture.