“Life is good so far.”

“Who is that bird in the water?”

“Gotta itch.”

“What do you want, crazy lady with the black thing stuck to your face?”

Yes, I work really close to a large waste-to-energy plant. There are water run off ditches that run along side of the waste plant. The advantage to this is that there are always birds in the ditches. On my way to get lunch I usually keep my eye open for anything interesting hanging around. Every spring the ditches are home to a handful of black necked stilts. Last year, we had several babies so I kept my eyes open this year.  One night, a couple of weeks ago, I drove slowly along the road and noticed two parents together. I pulled off on the grass and saw the babies. They were only a few days to a week old. Unfortunately, it had been cloudy and rainy for several days so it was tough to get good sunny pictures of the babies. Plus, they stay pretty far over on the other side of the ditch and this family was right in front of the entrance to the waste plant so I stayed in my car and took these out the window. I usually stay inside anyway because these stilts are pretty skittish and I didn’t want to freak them out. I took a handful of pictures and left. Time to go home.