Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron along the creek.  Notice the long thin white feather coming off the head.  Styling!

Baby Falcons About to Fledge

First baby Peregrine Falcon chick to start leaving the nest this year. I think there are three chicks, though I’ve only seen two at one time so far.

Peregrines at the Nest

Adult Peregrine Falcon flying off her observation perch over the nest.  

The nest was formerly a Raven nest, but the falcons have taken it over for the last four years. Two years ago, the Ravens tried to come back, but the Falcons had other ideas.

In the second picture, you can see one of the three chicks poking its head out of the nest.

Blue Jay Way

An interesting bird along the creek this morning. It was an “off” Blue Jay …. and then both parents showed up to feed it. Oddity explained!

An English Working Cocker

This is what an English WORKING COCKER looks like.  

None like him, before or since. 

Trump Is Their Man

Three Seasons on the Driveway

The Mystery of a Globe

I was once in a remote section of the Tasili N'Ajer in southern Algeria, when a Turaeg wanted to examine my fancy Tissot watch. I took it off, and it disappeared into a sea of hands before coming back a minute later. 

“Ca marche avec essence?" I was asked. Did the watch run on gasoline? They assumed the wind up part popped off to fill it up.

Before And After

Mushrooms Coming Up

As expected, 7 days of rain has driven up a flush of various kinds of mushrooms.

The first one is the Elegant Stinkhorn fungus (Mutinus elegans).  It is also called the "dog penis" mushroom. It takes buckets of rain to drive these up, and they do not last long.

The ones below might be Wine Cap mushrooms gone a bit long.  The last picture is definitely Wine Caps.

Blue and Gray, Green and Red

Monocacy Civil War battlefield, Maryland. just down the road a few miles. Every inch of Virginia and Maryland was soaked in blood and I hunt where the dead have fallen. I do not wonder why the soil is red.

Will This Work?

I have a wonderfully vocal, but problematic, Carolina Wren nesting about the house. 

Her first nest (successful) was in the front door wreath, which curtailed front door exit and entry for several weeks.

Last week, I noticed her inside the open garage, carrying pine needles in her beak.  She couldn’t possibly be nesting in there with dogs and the paint cans and me knocking about with tools and trash bags, could she?

She could.

My wife found the rather enormous nest, built almost overnight, in the box of microfiber cloth used for furniture and general cleaning.

Today, with the garage door open, the wren was back — very vocal and quite disturbed that her nest was in the same location, but no longer in the deep protective box.

Something had to give, and I decided to be firm but helpful.

I cut down an Almond Milk jug, cut a few drainage holes into the bottom, spray-painted it a dull green, and wired it into the fork of a small tree at the entrance to the garage — the very tree this very loud wren uses, every day, to serenade.  I then shoved the over-large nest inside, doing as best I could to preserve the round bowl inside. 

It was a tight fit, but that’s how Carolina Wrens like it.

Will the wren see her repositioned nest in the new location?  

I have high hopes.

Red-bellied Woodpecker Chick Reuniting With Mom

The night-time hours of predation by fox, raccoon, and possum are behind us, and the Red-bellied Woodpecker chick is very animated this morning. Mom knew right where she was, and called instantly.  I put a suet block in the feeder to help her along.

A Great Package of Threads

IF YOU ARE ON THREADS, I recommend thewokesalaryman.  

All the art is hand-drawn. 

Every post could be a children’s book of enlightenment.

Fledgling Red-bellied Woodpecker

Walking the dogs, Willow the Italian Greyhound cross, found what I believe is a juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker, fresh out of the nest hole.

Based on location found, it may be hatched out of one of the hollow tree-limb birdhouses I put up a year or two ago. It was no more than 20 feet away.

I got the chick away from the dog (no damage, and a *very* animated chick). I then sussed out what to do using an Amazon box (mulch and sticks on the bottom), which I placed on top of my car, safe from raccoons, possums, fox, black rat snakes, and hawks.

Mom will be close by, and I have other cars to drive. Woodpeckers are box or tree hollow nesters, and an Amazon box is going to feel familiar.

It's almost 6 pm now, and we have a parade of predators that come through the yard every evening. Night is a very dangerous time for a fledgling on the ground.

If the chick is still in the box tomorrow morning, it will get a limb ladder out, and the box will get placement in a high tree.