A Gift

Sometimes God drops a little present in your lap.

We have been preoccupied with a situation for some months now, the kind that can wear a person down.  No details here.  But yesterday afternoon my heart was heavy about the whole thing.

I had read on Monday of a rose-breasted grosbeak at a friend's feeder in a town 35 miles away.  (They migrate through, but do not nest, in this area.)  Then a local friend posted on Facebook that she had seen one at her sunflower seed feeder on Lake Hartwell yesterday morning.  Another friend, who lives just a few miles from here, had commented - just five minutes before I read it - that he had just seen one also, on the ground below his suet feeder!!  Apparently there is an active migration pattern right now.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak - Not my picture;
pulled from the thousands on the internet.

I kept an eye on my feeder for two hours.  Mike came home from work; he understood my desire but thought it a bit futile to watch the feeder like that.  I made supper and washed the dishes, all the time glancing out at our little feeder station.

While working at the table half an hour later, I just happened to glance up, and there it was, on the sunflower seed feeder.  Unbelievable.  I called to Mike - he came and was equally taken with it.  It ate sunflower seeds for about five minutes then flew off.  (Another one was at the feeder this morning, when I checked, right before leaving for school.)

Mike's words:  "God just wanted you to see that bird."  It's been on my "to-see" list for over 20 years now.  Non-birding people probably think this is crazy, but I am still floating about it.  It was a wonderful little gift, much appreciated.