You had lucky timing - they fledge fast.
Window or no, that’s a great shot!
Yeah, fabulous shot, @romansperson !
This is less spectacular, but I like it; click for the full image:
As I’ve said before, we don’t get enough fish in this thread. In Rhodes town (island of Rhodes, Greece, where we were until yesterday) you can go on a boat trip (well, round the harbor) where the boat has a “downstairs” - underwater, with big panel windows, so you can say hello to the fish. I think it’s mostly aimed at small children, but I loved it!
j
That sounds like a lot fun. I would love it too.
Today I ventured out onto the front porch only to have one of the parent wrens whiz by me and then stand on the railing, giving me the hairy eyeball. The young 'uns were scattered around the side yard and in the lower limbs of the tree there. A couple attempted to fly away from me, which was met with mixed success.
This was weird. Near our pond I saw this dead frog atop a fence post.
I assumed my gf put it there to be cute. Meanwhile, she saw it and assumed I put it there. Turns out neither of us was responsible. What, did a crow put it there?
About this time of year in 2005 several hundred toads exploded in a pond in Hamburg, Germany. There was much speculation about what could have caused such a destruction and the consensus after much speculation and media frenzy was in the end (link in German) that crows ate the livers of the toads, which they seem to like. They learn how to pick the liver out by watching each other, the clever sadists. Then during their mating ritual the toads pump themselves up to look impressive, but with the liver missing and a pierced skin below the diaphragm this led to the the animals bursting. This is the time of year when toads look for partners and your specimen seems to have burst just where I would suspect his liver.
Or the Aliens have finally arrived and they are starting small. Please keep us posted
Indeed.
The frogs are finally singing again!
Re: the carpeting of woods with bluebells:
Here you go - the view off the Forest Way between East Grinstead and Forest Row. Click for the fill image:
j
Lovely carpet of flowers. But oddly it triggered a strange memory of the only other context in which I’ve heard of East Grinstead.
Must be a pretty place to impress Robyn Hitchcock 
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A medium sized rattlesnake by the power box on the corner of my lot. Took him a bit into the adjoining desert and admonished him to stay home…don’t come a-visitin’.
This morning as I left the mall where I meet with exercise buddies, noticed a red-tailed hawk flying over the car. It landed on a light standard at the edge of the parking area, joining another hawk. (It is breeding time here) They flew off together for a little get together, it appears…
Hijack
I’m embarrassed to confess that I don’t know Robyn Hitchcock - but I do (slightly) know The Higsons. In case you didn’t know…they were put together in Norwich University by Charlie Higson, better known for later becoming a Harry Enfield sidekick, then joint creator of The Fast Show, and later the writer of a series of young adult fiction James Bond prequels. I reckon he deserves a song or two.
j
/Hijack
Back to the business at hand, and a request for help from @Tamerlane. This
is a bird we saw a couple of times in Rhodes, Greece a week or so ago. It looks like a wader to me, but I don’t have a confident ID. Any ideas? We saw it on a maintained lawn adjacent the shore, in the city. Wood sandpiper, possibly?
Thanks in advance
j
And just for fun, this little guy was a regular guest at our (courtyard) breakfast table:
There are a lot of feral cats on Rhodes, which is why, we presume, his tail is mostly absent.
j
Thank you, thank you! So beautiful and ethereal.
I concur.
Probably. The other guess would be a relatively recent fledgling - they grow their tail feathers last.
Quite possibly, though I should say European shorebirds are very much not my forte 
. Just googling it looks like on Rhodes you’d have to potentially sort through three Tringa species - wood, green and marsh sandpipers are all apparently possible.
Hijacky:
If such things interest you, I’d say he is a rabbit hole worth burrowing down into. Long career from the post-punk scene on. Very whimsical, alternately electric or acoustic, with a dry sense of humor and a lot of surreal imagery. A bit of a storyteller on stage.
Tell me this doesn’t sound like “gotta let this hen out”. I’m with Hitchcock here 
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They’re here! Brood XIX is in my backyard:
So are their shed skins (which I just found out are called exuviae):
Nice! Is the sound deafening? I was in South Carolina decades ago for a major hatch and you almost couldn’t hear yourself think - it was like a great mass of static.
I have heard that eaten raw cicadas taste a bit like cold asparagus, but so far I haven’t felt tempted 
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No noise yet - I expect that will happen when more emerge. It was VERY noisy the last time they visited.
I think I’ll leave them as a snack for the birds!