We Are Always Like the Birds
We’ve watched barn swallows down by our barn for the last 17 years, but we’ve never seen a performance like the one we saw on Saturday morning outside our front doors — yes, doors plural, not a double door, mind you, but two doors side by side. Our old farmhouse is like many down here in the South. One door is in the corner of one room and the other is in the corner of the room beside it. I don’t get. I just enjoy it. Having two front doors is one of the many conversation pieces around this old house.
While the birds were performing in our front yard, I got out my camera (of course). I took more pictures that I’m showing you (that’s no surprise), but these scenes are in the order that they happened.
The birds flew very near the ground, but sometimes some took a rest. I think the one on the left is practicing social distancing, don’t you?
Notice that this bird has a white breast and a fanned tail.
And this one has a swallowtail.
Here is another picture of a bird with a fan tail.
A couple of the birds landed on our porch and one flew between the porch column and the open front door where I was taking pictures. I was excited, but it happened too fast for a picture. This bird that sat for a while in the grass has a white chin and breast.
The one that rested on a twig nearby has an orange-buff breast and a reddish-brown chin, but all of them had beautiful deep blue backs and wings.
When this one flew by, . . .
. . . I decided to close the door and come inside. It was a bit hard to leave them.
My knowledge is limited, so I asked my bird expert friends to help me out. One said, “The ones with the brown chins and buff breasts are most likely barn swallows and the ones with clear white chins and breasts are most likely tree swallows. They hover and dart about catching bugs.” The other one said that she is pretty sure the two types of birds are scissor tail flycatchers and barn swallows. She says, “It is weird that the flycatcher seems to have a scissor tail when sitting on the fence, but it fans out during flight.” She said that her bird book says that is what they do. I liked that two types of birds were flitting around together.
God always takes care of us, but I feel it more keenly these days than I do on “normal” ones. We are always like the birds. It’s just that now it is more obvious.
Look at the birds of the air,
that they do not sow,
nor reap nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not worth much more than they?
Matthew 6:26