Tidbits from nature

Looking out our kitchen window the other day, I saw a red-shouldered hawk in the grass acting strangely: It was trying to hold some type of critter down with its talons. I had the perfect perspective - head on - to watch until the critter came into view. Thinking it most likely a vole, small bird, or large grasshopper, I waited. It was a medium-sized garter snake, without which (as far as I could tell) the hawk eventually flew up into a tree. Not having had the opportunity to get my camera into play, I am pleased to include the following video from YouTube of a similar happening. The big difference is that the red-shouldered hawk in the video ate the snake. Also, in the current instance, the snake was larger and raised itself up ala one rising from the basket for a snake charmer.

 

Cleaning out most of the bird nests in our yard, the other day, I found some eggs. Unfortunately, I let them sit around so long that they eventually cracked from expanding gases, leaking onto the saucer into which I had put them. The only ones left in good enough shape for me to photograph were those in the photo, below. The speckled egg is the only Carolina wren egg left in the nest under the foliage of a house plant (spider/airplane plant). The other egg is one of three that were left in the Eastern bluebird nest inside our nesting box. I've not yet set up the ladder to retrieve the house finch nest in the miniature swing hanging from the ceiling of our front porch.

The only nest that I found/could reach in our yard that did not have left-over eggs seemed to be a small bird's nest - in the center of a holly bush. I cannot identify the bird species.

Comments

[Joared]

I’m surprised the bluebird’s egg isn't smaller in size.

[Liz Hinds]

What beautiful eggs and how sad they were left behind.

[Cop Car]

Joared--It is small. I think the smallness of the dish in which the eggs rest (2" diameter) makes them seem larger. [I made small dishes when I was set up to do pottery because I kept screwing up the larger ones on the wheel. A 5# chunk of clay might wind up being a dish such as that shown - lol.]

Liz--In the case of the wren, she raised at least two broods in other nests. I think the egg had something wrong with it. In the case of the bluebird, she had already raised two broods in this same nest. The weather became much too hot for her to be brooding, as late as these eggs were laid. Since Eastern bluebirds prefer to nest out in the open, away from trees and shrubs, the sun beats down unmercifully on the nesting box.