From a comment that I left at Bogie's: "Yesterday was my first day watching out the windows/in the yard since I had left Derby on April 26th for KCMO. The Harris's and White-Crowned Sparrows are gone, the baby House Finches had Fledged and Mama Finch had laid the first egg of her next brood, a Red-Throated Hummingbird and a Yellow Warbler had arrived. I've not seen a Cedar Waxwing, here, since returning."
Something that I failed to mention is that I checked the Bluebird nesting box, this morning (I had seen the male Eastern Bluebird carry away a fecal sac, yesterday). There were four downy little Bluebirds snuggled down, head-to-tail in a circle, in the nest. Awwww. Unfortunately, my camera chose that time to have a battery that was too low to drive the flash. I didn't wish to keep the door open long enough to re-set the camera, so I missed a really cute photo.
Yesterday, spent quite a bit of time catching up on most of the weeding that had gotten out of hand while I was working the disasters. We have tons of irises - along the fence to either side of our back yard (we have no fence; but, neighbors to either side have wooden fences) and in the space between our driveway and one neighbor's front yard (about 100 square feet's worth). Nearly all of them were just entering full-bloom stage when I got home from KCMO Thursday evening. Gorgeous. Today, I need to tag some of them to send to my sister-in-law, Expert Seamstress. Last June, while visiting, she expressed a desire to get a start from me.
More on birds: You may be relieved to know that I got out our tallest ladder (it can be configured as a step ladder on which I can climb to a height of about 6 feet, putting my head about 11 feet above the floor of our front porch) and straightened out the windchime "platform" on which the House Finch had built her nest a couple of months ago. I still wasn't high enough (not wanting to go higher on the ladder) to see into the nest; but, I reached in and held up the lone egg that was in the nest - truly a House Finch egg. Mama Finch has been fussing about the nest ever since. I'm thinking that there are probably two eggs in the nest, now. This means that, however many chicks she had in the first brood have fledged.
Awww, baby birds...so cute. Happy Mother's Day CC... ~Joy
Posted by: Joy | May 08, 2011 at 11:30 AM
Thank you, Joy, and the same to you!
Posted by: Cop Car | May 08, 2011 at 05:25 PM
Baby birds are so cute!
Good luck with the exercise, although I'm sure you are well prepared for it.
Posted by: bogie | May 09, 2011 at 03:53 AM
Bogie--I would be well prepared for the exercise had I not gone on assignment. I had just received the "Playbook" and the joint FEMA/Missouri operating plans a few days before leaving on assignment. I just started reading it, yesterday. The "stuff" that I'm supposed to know is about 1700 pages. No chance, now.
As I once told your dad: They can train me and teach me and tell me how I'm supposed to do things; but, when I'm on an assignment I just do what needs to be done. The same will go for this exercise.
Posted by: Cop Car | May 09, 2011 at 06:09 AM
You have a lot more energy than I do these days!!!!
And the birds are simply darling!!!!
Posted by: Kay Dennison | May 09, 2011 at 10:45 AM
This year the closest thing to a nest I had was some twigs I found on the floor of my carport under a pillar that a foolish Dove built her nest on one year. We get some strong windstorms here in the Spring and her nest, with all the eggs, blew down. I was glad that the prospective nest builder thought better of her choice of a place to build her home this Spring.
Posted by: Darlene | May 09, 2011 at 05:32 PM
Wow. What a lot you have to do. I can't believe the disasters happening. My husband just said it looks like New Orleans is going to get flooded out again.
Posted by: Hattie | May 13, 2011 at 01:49 AM
Kay--Thanks for the thought; but, from your postings, I do believe that you could run rings around me. I'm anxious for your return.
Darlene--I'm sorry that your dove's choice of building sites proved to be so foolish. Bummer! Glad she learned something.
Hattie--We humans are pretty foolish. Every time we build a levee, it provides conditions that cause the soil to subside. I would bulldoze New Orleans and its levees. Trying to keep people there is a bad, if old, idea. Only sampans should serve as abodes in that area.
Posted by: Cop Car | May 13, 2011 at 08:11 AM