I came across a forlon-looking fledgling hawk in a driveway yesterday on my neighborhood walk. The homeowner was beside herself. She had called animal control and they had told her to leave it alone, but she was worried it would get hit by a car or a cat might get it. I suggested that she could try calling to Bay Area Raptor Rescue and they might send someone out to assist.
I saw the Parking Lot Parakeets again today. That palm tree must house their nest. I didn’t see them when I first looked, but then I heard them.
Only yesterday I was thinking about how it had been many years since I saw a stag beetle. Then today I found this fairly small one on its back in my wheelbarrow. It was nearly a former beetle, don’t know if it was half-cooked or just approaching its normal sell-by date.
I used to love to play with those guys as a kid.
Low clouds on the hill at the end of the street (Animas City Mountain), after the big rain last night:
After several years since the last sighting on my property, I seem to have about a dozen band-tailed pigeons making our place home this year. Definitely larger, by a lot, than the mourning doves, whose population also seems to be increasing.
Ducklings are getting bigger.
Walking back from picking up dinner to take home, I saw this huge thistle. Hard to get a good photo with my iPhone while carrying two bowls and a bag:
Gorgeous photo! Thank you.
I’ve got a pair of Tawny Frogmouths living in the park next door. They are usually in the same tree, sitting side by side with the heads under a wing. If you didn’t know where to look you’d never see them.
No photos but here’s a quick video bout them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nci3dnZPVfg
Blueberries are ripe,
We used to cover our blueberry bushes with netting so we could harvest them instead of the birds gorging. Then one year a bird got tangled up in the netting.
My gf no longer allows netting. Yesterday we picked a bucket full, and now the remaining fruit will be bird feed.
Out on the bike today on National Cycle Route 21 - a lake covered in waterlilies.
j
We share a little bitty woodsy area with our next door neighbor. Today when I went out to water the plants, I saw a pileated woodpecker fly out of it, hell bent for leather, calling all the way. I’d heard them yelling in the larger wooded area nearby, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a good look at one. I hope they have a nest in there somewhere.
I’m not sure this counts, and it was last week, but I thought it was worth posting.
It’s a giant animal overpass near Pagosa Springs. There is animal fencing for several miles before the overpass, to herd the herd over it:
Beautiful blueberries and I bet the birds think so too.
Living in Boston for a while, I got used to Maine blueberries. Once I did that, store bought blueberries have never been the same.
Your blueberries look as toothsome as Maine’s do. Now all you need is a pint of Breyers Natural Vanilla ice cream and two spoons. Nothing wrong with a little drizzle of dark rum as long as you don’t have to reach too far for it.
Woodpeckers out the wazoo! It’s like a pecker sanctuary out here.
Wonderful!
So cool!
My gf saw a tree in the woods with a pileated woodpecker nest. She came home, got me and dragged me into the woods (refusing to tell me why). Very cool. The chicks were poking their heads out.
I went out to refill the bird baths and water the hanging baskets. The baskets are above my head, so I can’t see if there’s anything in them other than the plants I put there. I scared the crap out of two wrens in one of the baskets. There’s a divot in the middle of that basket - I think they were starting to build a nest in there. I hope they rethink that idea.
