Eating dinner on the porch, I saw movement in the horse pasture. It wasn’t a horse, though.
Nice shot. We had a large doe crash through the underbrush here a few minutes ago. Naturally, my phone is still upstairs. It stood still for a moment as we eyeballed each other and she crashed away again.
One of my favorite plants is blooming. Behold the purple passion flower:
I love those things, they look so crazy! They grew in the woods behind the house where I used to live, but I haven’t seen any since we moved to the new place. Ought to get me some.
No, much smaller - though I have seen nutria/coypu in the region. I’m really not sure what they were - they were about the size of a rat, so… I dunno. On reflection “believe” (even in italics) was too strong.
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Hmmm…muskrat? Apparently Europe liked to import all of the potentially problematic American furbearers 
. I think this is the thread where I learned they are actually raccoons in Europe as well.
Today in nature I saw…
Horse Fight. Horse Fight, Ladies and Gentlemen. Horse Fight on the Dry Lake.
Oh my! Stallions?
Re: the peregrine youngsters. They’ve learned how to tear into their own food. Yesterday, a parent brought them a new kill and just laid it down for them to tear into. They kept waiting to be fed. After about an hour, the parent took it away. I assume to eat it him/herself. Today though, dropping off a new kill got the desired response from one of the young ones who started to tear into it. The other didn’t seem remotely interested so perhaps it got food earlier.
They also keep leaning over the edge of their box to watch the goings on below. They seem very interested in studying flight. Not long now…
Today, out the window where I work, I saw an anole showing off his dewlap, a butterfly, and a hummingbird checking out my roses.
Well, poor horsies and all…but that must be so interesting to watch!
A lot like the Slap Fight GIF in the Musk thread
On Wednesday morning, I saw a red-headed woodpecker. This was a first for me and it happened pretty fast so I was unable to get a picture - I just mainly saw a head with red all around and some dark feathers. My wife and I also saw a spotted sandpiper that afternoon while kayaking on the Chicago river. Props to her for being able to ID it - she is a reluctant birder who is learning bird names from me. I’m learning many of them through Merlin.
Yesterday at the Montrose Bird Sanctuary we saw a couple blue-gray gnatcatchers, who are absolutely too quick to catch on a phone camera. We also saw a northern flicker, plenty of redwing blackbirds, and Merlin said there was a cedar waxwing in the area but I couldn’t see it. I have yet to see one, so the waxwing is on my list.
Also at the sanctuary, there is one cardinal who will land on your hand to feed. I’m calling him Jose after my favorite Chicago Cub from when I was a kid. Yesterday, he wouldn’t land on my hand for some reason (he’s done it in the past) but he landed on both my wife and my son’s hands. First time with the cardinal for them though they’ve gotten chickadees and redwings to land before.
Neato! I wonder how he came to be trained.
When my brother lived in Michigan, he went to a park where he saw a few people standing with birdseed filled hands outstretched. He watched quietly as various songbirds flew over, took a seed, then flew off. He returned several times with his own seed and did the same thing.
That would be Kensignton Park outside of Milford. I have Bluejays at my house that almost do this as well, but I’d prefer not to get them used to eating out of my hand. I lay out a row of almonds on my deck rails and they fly down before I can leave.
^Yes!
They tend to rove in gangs, so if you see one, you will probably see a whole bunch. They are beautiful.
Today I see loads of June bugs. They bounce off the gutters of the house and make a funny sproing sound. The birds are delighted.
Waxwings are my favorite local songbird. And yes, they prefer to travel with at least three thousand of their very closest friends. The sound is amazing - a very high pitched “tseee!” from dozens of throats at once.
Got home just as dusk was turning into twilight. Sat outside, and … BATS! Two of them! I just sat under the beautiful crescent moon and watched them flit around.
Most likely little browns, the same species that roost under the Congress St. bridge in Austin. Watching them flood out on summer nights was always a special treat for me.
The birds are practicing running takeoffs as far as they can inside the box. This morning, they have already progressed out to the perching bar outside their box. I’m thinking I will be looking at a mostly empty box in a few hours. It is exciting.
Yesterday we had a road trip to Monterey Bay. We drove around that perimeter drive from Fisherman’s Wharf around the point and approaching Carmel, and it was gorgeous, cool and breezy with little white puffy clouds in a blue sky.
I saw a big raft of sea otters out in the kelp! They looked like the heads of scuba divers out in the bay, but on closer examination, I could tell they were sea otters. There were about twenty or so, and they were just chilling and floating.