It wasn’t until the final week of July this summer that a thunderstorm formed that was strong enough to produce appreciable rain. Thankfully the part that passed over our house, while fierce, did not contain the straight-line winds or the tennis-ball-sized hail that hit other parts of our area causing power outages, tree damage, plus roof and other property damage. Instead what we got was 3.5 inches of glorious, much-needed rain!
This was the first real thunderstorm my homegrown plants have experienced since I put them in the ground in mid-May. Most at are peak bloom (or past) and quite tall, so I had a lot of propping and staking to do the next morning.
While I was out there getting wet and muddy and dodging mosquitoes I heard some peeping in the distance and realized it was coming from one of our wren houses—the wren pair must’ve had a second brood!
As I stood there listening to the peeping and watching several little noggins take turns popping in and out of the their “front door”, I marveled at how resilient nature is. Those babies had not only survived a nasty thunderstorm with 60mph winds and torrential rain the night before, but during the previous 2 days the outside temperature was in the mid-90s with very high humidity. I don’t know how those little nestlings didn’t cook to death in that tiny house!
Soon they will take flight for the first time, and then at the end of summer these short-to-medium-distance migrants will head to the Gulf coast states where they will spend the winter before returning north next spring.