Mother's Day

This Mother's Day I got up at 4.30 to go bird listening at 5.30 at the old cemetery in Walker Valley. It was an unusual experience - we sat on mats on the ground and waited for the birds to start singing. The first one up was a Whip O'Will down by the river. It was rather like a car alarm, not like the clear call we heard later, which was ethereal, beautiful and haunting, just like I imagined a Whip O'Will to be.
The second stage of the day was birding at Cades Cove. I have been to Cades Cove twice now and find it a rather surreal experience. Cades Cove is a beautiful valley surrounded by the Great Smoky Mountains ... you can learn more about it here. What I find odd about it is that people seem to just drive around the road, perhaps they stop and look at the cabins and other historical sites, but all I see is the people driving bumper to bumper. We stopped a couple of times to look for birds and immediately cars stopped and eventually asked us where the bear was that we were looking at - it was very odd and disconcerting- they wanted to see bears. We did see a Baltimore Oriole, Summer Tanager and a Indigo Bunting all in the same area- pretty cool. On the way in and the way out we saw a mama bear and 2 babies being watched by about 30 people. I have to say I did jump out excitedly to the road to view them. They seemed undisturbed by all the attention, but it was sad to see them without peace and quiet.
After we got back we had a lovely lunch- the food is wonderful at Tremont- and then the test. I hadn't given much thought to the test and it was much harder than I thought. I did terribly on the oral identification, getting only one out of three. They let me pass but I definitely need lots and lots and lots of practice.
The third part of the day was the return home and dinner and presents with my lovely family. It was a stressful weekend for Neil since Bella ran away again, he had to give penicillin to the children- he managed admirably!!! I came home to a yummy dinner, presents & cards from the children, and children who were excited to see me - it doesn't get much better than that!