Feeling Different

We have been busy getting the summer place looking like it is lived in.  A nice one inch rain has made the grass grow and washed away much of the pine pollen that covers everything outdoors this time of year.  The flowers are planted and the awning is down.

The yellow Ladyslippers are in fine form in Itasca State Park though their cousins, the Pink Ladyslippers, Minnesota's State Flower, are waiting till last to put on their show.

The boat on Lake Itasca is carrying the visitors to the park while the guide recites the history of finding the headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi.  Yes, you actually can step across the river without getting very wet.  You will get bitten by mosquitoes though!

Robins are numerous and this one is way down the hill by Eagle Lake checking out the grass I have recently weed-whacked looking for juicy morsels.

Speaking of robins... what gives with this guy/gal?  I think there are times when we all feel different from other people, but can you imagine how this bird must feel?

He is apparently an Albino Robin, quite rare I hear, but very attractive in his own right.

While our differences often make us self conscious, this guy didn't bother to run and hide when we found him but kept on looking for worms and running under the shrubs to pass on his find to a little one.  Apparently other robins don't make a big deal out of his different looks.

As a matter of fact he has created quite a stir in the small town where I found him, Park Rapids, Mn.  A neighbor came out of his house when he saw me taking pictures and a policeman stopped to say that they have been watching his antics all Spring and he is well-known in town simply as "the bird."

Other than looking a little different, well, ok, looking quite a bit different, he seems to have no loss in robin skills like finding this fat worm to down.

I guess that other than looking different from his kind, he pretty well has accepted his fate and made the best of his differences and others don't seem to mind.

Perhaps there is a lesson there for all of us different folk.  One thing I have to say in his favor is that he really blends in well in the shadows, perhaps even better than his brothers and sisters, don't you think?

Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegone, where all the women are strong, and all the men are good-looking, and all the robins aren't red-breasted.