Shocking!

This is the first Green Heron I've seen in New Jersey this spring - and I'm not sure who was more surprised at the chance encounter, him or me. Loved the way the feathers on his head were standing up, and also that he kindly perched on a snag in the marsh long enough for me to get a couple of shots. Then, with a big squawk, off he went into the cattails. A good way to start my walk this morning. Also saw loads of swans, some gnatcatchers, waxwings, kinglets and both barn and tree swallows. Only ran into one other person during my 1.5 hour hike - bliss. Four other pics from today posted on Flickr, Starting here.

Hubs left at 0'dark-hundred this morning, headed for the racetrack in South Jersey. They were schedule to have a "track day" today in advance of the 12-hour race tomorrow. Unfortunately, one of the guys who was driving the car today got into a bad crash and it looks like the car may not be fixed in time for the race tomorrow. Waiting now to hear how repairs are going. As is usually the case, no one was injured - thankfully. Bummer for hubs though, as he won't have many other chances to race before he heads to FL next month.

I'm still packing and sorting ... at this point it seems like an endless task, although I am making headway. Soon I will reach the point where I can't pack anything else. So much will have to be packed after we sell the house. I've sold a few items on eBay in the last week - which is kind of fun. Once we get the house sold and a firm moving date, I'll arrange for a tag sale to move some of the furniture and larger items. Not looking forward to that...

Kura and Ellen are coming out for a visit tomorrow - dinner, wine, laughs and friendship. Really looking forward to it...

Thanks for the lovely comments on my landscape yesterday, and for those who took time to scan the pics on Flickr, thank you! I appreciate all of your feedback very much.

Oh, and I heard back from the Bug Guys about the strange Bee Behavior that I observed several days ago. Their best guess is that the hitchhiking bee (a male Andrena mining bee) was trying to chase off the larger male carpenter bee in some sort of territorial dispute. They were somewhat perplexed by the behavior, too. I keep watching all the big bees now to see if any more of them have hitchhikers.

Happy Friday, people.

Debbi