God's amazing creation brings so many reminders of His care and provision.
Remember the verses about birds in Matthew 6:26 about not being anxious or worrying: "Look at the birds of the air....your Heavenly Father feeds them..."
I was reminded of that on two occasions this past week when I heard a noise outside my window.
The first was a huge flock of little birds the size of a finch descending into a tree at twilight with all the noise of a huge loud protest meeting! It reminded me a little of lorikeets grouping together into trees at the local shopping mall near where we lived back in OZ just at dusk, also with unbelievable noise like they were all giving their account of their day all at once! (Unfortunately my bird book seems to be a little limited as I haven't been able to yet figure out exactly what type of bird it is)
The second was just yesterday when I didn't hear any bird-song, but rather what sounded like a lot of loud and large wing flapping all at once - a sound I'd not heard before.
I got up to take a look and saw a sight I have never seen before. Two families of birds - one of Grey Hornbills and one of Red Billed Wood Hoopoe and 3 squirrels in the tree outside the window. Hornbills I have only seen on their own, and the Red Billed Wood Hoopoe I've only seen two or at them most three together.
It soon became clear that the reason there were so many was that these were parents and babies. Why the Red Billed Wood Hoopoes were also with the hornbills I'm not sure. The young birds were a little clumsy in their movements and looked less like they really knew what they were doing as they pecked at branches and leaves alongside their parents doing a similar thing.
One of the hornbills even landed on the window sill right outside the glass I was looking through and for a few seconds we were only about 2cm apart - nose to nose....until I moved slightly and he got a fright and flew off - I never imagined I would ever be so close to such a bird!
The photo below is of one of the young ones - apart from being a bit smaller and fluffier it is yet to develop the distinct white mark above the eye.
The Red Billed Wood Hoopoe babies were easy to spot as their heads were still really fluffy and their beaks were not quite fully mature and were still black instead of the parents red. Altogether there were about 6 or 7 of them along with the 3 hornbills. (In the photo below you can see two others on the tree trunk behind the one in the centre of the photo) I wish I could have got a photo of them in flight - they have beautiful white strips across their wings to match the tail.
The squirrels tried chasing after some of the birds but of course the birds could easily fly to another branch. In the end the squirrels gave up and ran off.
I tried to get some photos even though the gauze flyscreen obscured them a little.
And then within about 10 minutes they were all gone and flown off to the next stage of their lesson for the day!
Meanwhile, I had also had another lesson from their Creator and mine - He who provides for them will also provide for me!
These are stunning. Thank you for sharing
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