“The bluebird carries the sky on his back” – Henry David Thoreau

The signs of spring are literally springing up everywhere. I can’t help but think the fields look greener at every glance. Each day I recognize new bird songs. Yesterday it was the squeaky toy squeak of the phoebe I heard. The tree swallows are jockeying for possession of the nest boxes in the field. I’ve decided I must put up a couple more bluebird boxes so the bluebirds won’t have to compete with the cheeky little swallows.

With so much rain of recent, a puddle has formed in the driveway not far from our front porch. As we sat on the porch the other day greedily enjoying the warm rays of the sun that would beam occasionally between rafts of clouds, we were entertained by several bluebirds a stone throw away darting about.

One of the little blue flashes decided the warm puddle in the drive was a perfect bathing spot. I dashed in and grabbed my camera and took a few shots of all the splish-splashing.

This bird so enjoyed the first bath, it came back for a second a few minutes after the first.

There was quite a lot of splashing going on.

You can see another male bird is waiting for his chance to jump in.

Then, it was up into the birch tree for some much needed preening and straightening of feathers.