Friday Foto Friends: The Robins and Cedar Waxwings Have Landed!

This morning I was lamenting the fact that I did not have any new photos to share on my Friday Foto Friends blog post.  And I knew we couldn't take a ride anywhere because we are still waiting for the septic tank pumper people to arrive and clean out the tank so we can be restored to some kind of normalcy around here (without going into the nitty gritty dirty details of what it is like to live w/o being able to use the "facilities" for three days, or run water for showers, laundry, or dishes because it also must go into the same tank and every ounce of water that goes in could possibly be the drop that would cause a major back up that would be very unpleasant indeed), so anyway, I know you don't want pictures of all of that mess, so what to do, what to do?

Well, I stepped out on the back porch to drink my morning glass of "Metamucil", which is my daily habit. I enjoy having a "drink" on the porch and watch whatever activity might be happening in the early morning out on Still Waters Pond and thereabouts.  It's a relaxing way to start the morning...

And then I noticed there was a lot of bird activity around the holly tree that has been so loaded with berries, just waiting for this particular moment in time...to feed the robins and other birds on their migration southward for the winter...

Well, I was snapping away with my regular camera and enjoying the wonderful pictures I was getting of the very active robins devouring every holly berry in sight as fast as they could. And I also took a couple of short videos on my cell phone, which can be seen on my Facebook page if you are interested in hearing the birds singing (if you can drown out the traffic noise in the background).

I was so proud of myself for getting such wonderful pictures. And then I came inside and sat down at the computer to upload the pictures for editing, etc., when I realized that my camera's memory card was not even in the camera! It was still in the computer from the last pictures I uploaded and I never put it back into the camera! Therefore, all of those wonderful pictures I had just taken were not even there! I cried a quick "Oh No!", and put the memory card back in my camera and ran back outside, all the while praying the robins were still there so that all would not be lost.

Well, God had a little surprise for me. Not only were the Robins still there gobbling away at the berries, (and it had also started to rain softly, but that didn't seem to deter them),

But I noticed something a bit different...an unusual looking bird flying in and out among the branches with the Robins:

A Cedar Waxwing!! Wow! Now I was excited! I have very rarely ever seen a Cedar Waxwing before, and so this was a wonderful treat!!

And as I stood there watching this beautiful bird enjoying the holly berries, I couldn't help but thank the Lord for this added blessing today. And then I realized, if I had not made the mistake of forgetting to put the memory card back in my camera and had only gotten those first pictures of just the robins, I would most likely have missed this opportunity to see the Cedar Waxwings as well. I would have been content with the "ordinary robins", even though they are also special and fun to watch on their annual flight south in the late fall and then back north again in the spring, and I might have missed out on the extra special blessing of seeing birds that are much more rare and interesting!

And I might have missed this great photo of this robin with a berry in his mouth:

Or seeing the lovely yellow fringe of feathers on the tail of the Cedar Waxwing:

(can you find it?)

And there he is also getting a berry in his mouth:

So very interesting with his black hooded eyes, yellow belly, yellow tips on the tail feathers, and I also see a red tip on the wing feather. Such unique coloring!

However, I still love this flock of Robins and all their flurry of activity. I am thankful the Lord provided so many berries for them this year.  Apparently there are a lot of them coming, and perhaps they are escaping an early or very cold winter up north.  We didn't have hardly any holly berries last year, so this is indeed a treat!

Lesson to be learned from this story? 

Sometimes God uses our "mistakes" to actually give us another opportunity for being blessed. Don't ever think that you've totally blown it in life when you mess things up. God is able to take our "mess ups" and create something beautiful for us, when we allow Him to work and not give up hope. And oftentimes, the added blessing is even better than the "ordinary" thing that we would have been content with, but perhaps not the rich fulfillment that God had intended for us.

Isaiah 40:31 NIV 

31 "But those who hope in the Lord 

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; 

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint"