This post is for the birds

or at least about the birds (and a little about God's goodness).

We are blessed to live on an estate/neighbourhood that has three little man-made lakes. In fact as I sit and type this post I am staring out the window at the lake across our little street. This year we have lots and lots of water fowl who have babies. It is so much fun! There was a Mallard family that I was unable to get pics of. Then, two families of Canadian Geese.
(here is one of the families--yes they think they own the neighbourhood)
Then the mama swan hatched two eggs:

Then another set of ducklings:

And then another family of geese moved in but I can't find any of German's pics of them so they are probably still on his camera. We also have a baby coot--a black fuzz ball--bouncing around but mama won't let me anywhere near. The girls have been thrilled because they have watched the process from eggs to babies to changing feathers as they grow. We walk almost every evening around the lakes so they can take pictures with their Fisher Price digital cameras (great little cameras for kids). The geese and swans often come into our front garden to eat, sleep and do other business. They are the messiest birds! (Maria I don't know how you managed hatching ducklings and getting them a start in life!)

As wonderful as the water fowl are, I was not satisfied. Early in the year we had a peahen visiting us regularly in the back garden. I had not seen her in a long while. Last Thursday morning I was telling my prayer partner that I would really love to have peachicks. I thought it would be so cool to see the little ones. That very afternoon, the gas man came to read the meter. As I let him out back to get the reading, in the midst of a gale of wind and rain, I saw this on our slide:

I wasn't sure, but I thought, maybe it was a peachick because of the top knot. I prayed that I'd get another chance to see him. I kept an eye out, but of course was not watching when mom came and took him home. The next evening we were eating dinner outside and the peahen and four chicks briefly hopped on the roof of the garage next door. God is so good! I got to see my peachicks. Then Monday, she brought them to eat in our garden.

If you look closely you will see that there are five chicks. She brought them right up to the window. At some point, the girls must have scared her because she gathered them all up under her. But one was way to curious and kept peeking out.

It is such a blessing to see God's creation up close. The girls are delighting in watching them (in fact that is what they are doing as I write this post). They are learning about how a mama bird cares for her babies. We are blessed. And I just wanted to share the pictures with you. Thank you for indulging me.