What A Wonderful World!

 If you are like me carrying camera everywhere I go, then you will understand why I believe Mother Nature constantly amazes us. Normally I try to steal few more hours of sleep during the weekends. But  I have to get up early Sunday morning to check out few of my favorite birding places for the sign of spring migration before going back to work in the afternoon. I spotted few migrating warblers and songbirds were busy building nests or feeding young. I was glad to see Purple Martins have returned their usual summer homes at Buford Trout Hatchery and there were about 30 pairs working very hard for their nests.

Click picture to enlarge

Not having any satisfactory picture made me a little upset and thinking maybe I should stay home instead. Cruising back home, I checked out this roadside pond adjacent to an office building.  I was not prepared to see any thing unusual. Surprisingly, there was a suntanning Great Blue Heron!  Heron flew off to another side of the pond as soon as he spotted me. I did not want to give up and went behind the bird and tired to see if I could get a better shot. Then I stepped on something... A fire ant mound and before I even knew it, ants were all over my pants. If you have never suffered from a fire ant bite, trust me, you don't want to try.  I didn't want to exaggerate. But I think there were at least 20 or 30 more ants on my left leg. Without a second thought, I dropped my camera and ran to the lake and washed my left foot as much as I could, hopefully reduce the toxic venom. While waiting for my foot to dry  so I can put back on my boot and thinking today is just a bad day for me......Suddenly, I heard Canada Geese calling and I quickly scanned the pond and saw two adult geese swim towards me. As they got closer to the bank, I saw something so beautiful ... :)

This is not the first time I see goslings. But I do believe destiny brought me to witness a wonderful life. If I did not get that painful fire ant bite, I would not stay long enough to snap this picture. Do you believe your destiny?  -- Happy Birding!-- Linda


Note: This is an article I found for home remedy for fire ant bite and it works for me :)