Monday morning surprise

I woke up this morning as usual to get ready for work: took a shower, got dressed then had breakfast. As it was a Monday morning, I was the only one up at that time and my parents were still fast asleep. After brushing my teeth, I had to go back to the kitchen to get something. As I was about to pass through our dining room, I happened to look out our glass sliding doors that opened out into our screened rear terrace with its view of our backyard.

There I noticed were several birds either perched on the branches of some our plants or on the clotheslines my father had put up the week before. There were also several just standing around on the pebble-washout surface of our terrace.

I don't know what species of birds these were but when there was a rectangular tub filled with water placed just outside our rear terrace to catch the water leaking from a hole in one of our roof gutters, several birds used to come in the morning to the tub for a bath. It was amusing to watch them test the waters (the tub being much deeper than a traditional bird bath) before diving in for a quick bath. Each bird had its own "technique" of diving in. From their perch on the rim of the tub, some would jump in and flutter their way out back to part of the rim from where they came. Others opted to jump into the water and instead make a right-angled turn to the adjacent rim.

Anyway, that was a long time ago. Now the tub is gone because the hole in the roof gutter has been mended and I was sorry to no longer see the birds come visit especially because of our cats which we now let out into our garden. That's why the sighting this morning was so unexpected and particularly welcome. I counted at least ten birds there and they stayed around for a little over ten minutes before flying off one by one to the chico trees.

It was a nice way to start another busy week.