So every year a pair of mated Towhees builds a nest in one of our trees and has two sets of babies– two babies in the early spring and two babies in mid-summer. I don’t know if these are the same two Towhees or simply generations of Towhees that were born here and return to our yard to build their nest.
Towhee
In any case, the pair, sometimes two pair, over-winter and build a nest. And every spring one of the babies inevitably falls out of the nest and the dog finds it. He or she- as in Rosie’s case when we had Rosie- finds the baby and alerts me by barking and by standing over the baby bird with the parent birds flying around his head chirping like mad. Jake just experienced his first baby bird. Now he’s spending whatever free time he has beneath the redwoods searching for another one.
Every spring I try to catch the fluttering baby. If I do manage to catch it, it goes back into the tree. If it’s too young to stay in the tree it gets a ride to Birdie Rescue. If I can’t catch it, well, nature can be pretty indifferent. In this particular case the baby could flutter but not fly. It managed to flutter out of my reach. I’m not sure where it ended up… I think in the neighbor’s yard, but its sibling stayed in the tree and he or she is doing well.
Usually the Towhees manage to raise at least one baby from each fledging (?) fledgement (?) to adulthood and that baby sticks around to help with the next set of babies.
I like Towhees. They are plain, friendly birds, kind of like the Amish of the bird world. They’re always with me when I work in my garden. Noisy though. Up at 4:45 a.m. Again, the Amish of the bird world.
Our weekly bird count:
Wild turkeys. Saw a big flock while hiking. I can understand why people decided we should eat turkeys. They are very fat birds.
Wild Turkeys.
A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers. They are the size of hawks and they make this prehistoric bird call. So Jurassic Park-ish.
Pileated Woodpecker.
The Grosbeaks are back at the park.
Grosbeak.
We arrived early one morning and ran into…
Owl! Cool, huh!
And we found this in our backyard–
Peacock.
He’s from a non-native (obviously) flock set free in our area over 40 years ago. They thrive here. Noisy suckers.
We also have two pairs of robins, a pair of mourning doves, and a pair of bossy blue jays living in our yard. I do love spring and babies!
So other than a dead baby possum – which had its throat ripped out, probably by a bobcat who probably ate the parent possum and any other baby possums – these are our wildlife sightings for this week.
Jake continues his hunt for the mountain lion. Look what he did– snagged a rear claw climbing a cliff. The vet removed the nail. I have to do a better job of protecting this dog from himself! Tom Stronach is gonna yell at me…
In his den, sad boy.
Can anyone identify these flowers? They volunteered in one of my herb beds. I have no idea what they are. Our resident botanist– Penny? They have a light lavender colored petal with yellow stamens or pistons and long, spiky dark green leaves. They open from little green buds every morning and close at night.
Lavender-colored flowers. View One.
Lavender-colored flowers. View Two.
P.S. Hubby reminded me about the peregrine falcon. Flew right past us last Saturday.
