thank goodness for birds

stinkbutt or no stinkbutt we still had to set up camp and make ourselves at home for the next two days. the tent was set up and mr. a-go-go went to crop circling a trench around the tent to keep it from getting flooded if the rain continued because of course we would have rain after already experiencing freezing temps and torrid winds. so mr. a-go-go got out his handy dandy folding shovel while i pulled out the camera to document it all.

aside from setting up the tent and making the bed, we need to plan for meals and make sure we have something to do after all the set up is done. reading, sewing and sudoku are done by the light of our headlamps. if it is too cold or windy we hide out in Rodney until it’s late enough to declare a justifiable bed time. mostly we just noodle along and explore the landscape that surrounds us. at camp stinkbutt though, there wasn’t much to explore save for a dash past the stink to the reserved campsites that were creekside. the water was pretty and gurgling away or maybe it was babbling, i’m not sure. there were all sorts of birds just like mr. a-go-go said. so we sat and watched and enjoyed the view.

as crowded and stinky and cold as the campsite was it wasn’t all that bad. the saving grace of the whole place was the birds. all kinds of birds! from the get go there were the birds. robins scurried about the campsite in search of critters and crumbs. woodpeckers, peck, peck, pecked away at the lanky ponderosas that surrounded us and unidentifiable birds in grey and brown peeped peeped under foot, car and camp bench. the niftiest of nifty however were the hummingbirds. camp stinkbutt was void of anything flowering but still i heard the cartoonish motor motor of hummingbirds whizzing by. i couldn’t figure out where they were coming from or why as not a speck of color was in sight save for the eye popping yellow of our tent and the happy pink & orange picnic throw i had tossed over my faded camp chair. all night the first night i would hear what sounded like hummingbirds hum around us, it wasn’t until morning when one wee fellow flew fast and furious into the yellow cereal bag we had floating about our camp deftly jabbing at it hoping for something sweet to snack on. ah-ha! i knew there were hummingbirds.

the mystery of the hummingbirds was solved when i wandered away to find a less stinkified bathroom to take care of business in. i thought for certain that the pit toilets near the camp host would be clean and so i headed that way. as i walked i began to hear more motor motor motor and the closer i got to the camp host, the louder the humming buzz biz got. there before me, outside the RV of the host was a small thatch of birdie paradise. feeder after hummingbird feeder peppered the area and boy howdy were there birds! some of the feeders had five or more wee nectar lovers perched upon them and they didn't fly away when i appeared. i didn't have my camera with me and it wouldn't have mattered if i did, i don't think i could have adequately captured this lovey yet surreal moment. so yeah, it may have been a stinky two days but the birds provided a lovely soundtrack.