They're Bustin' Out!

The tiny occupants of the bird house I've been watching for most of the summer are ready to bust out! It took forever for the parent birds to build the nest in the first place; one of the birds was very fussy - I watched both of them spend their days hauling in sticks and fuzz, and occasionally I saw HER throw out some of the sticks and white fuzz that weren't to her satisfaction.

For weeks it seems like the pair was just using the house as their summer cottage but eventually I started hearing the tiniest peeping sound. And the parents began making frequent deliveries of worms and bugs. Each day the peeping became louder and more intense and the parents could barely keep up with the demand for food!.. more food!

Yesterday I started to see little heads and yellow beeks looking out of the round door of the house. I knew the time was nigh. And today I happened to be watching when one little curious head stretched out so far that the rest of the body came with it and the little bird found itself perched on the limb attached to the house. It teetered there for a few seconds before it lunged for safety and disappeared back into the round door.

I'm sure that it's just a matter of days or even hours before the baby wrens are out into the world hunting their own bugs and worms. Maybe they'll come back to visit the old homestead once in a while...maybe even spend the night?

I Saved a Life Today

If we leave our garage open during the day, humming birds fly in. The problem is that they are unable to figure out how to get back out - they fly around the ceiling and buzz around the windows until they are so weak they can't fly any more. And when that happens they become victims of the kitties.

I bought a butterfly net just for the purpose of catching these tiny birds that get trapped. And this morning I caught another one...taking it's picture before I opened my hand and sent it buzzing off into the sky.

shoes

I had done it only once before - when I worked for the telephone company in Anchorage. As I entered the building and walked up the hall, I looked down at my feet and saw to my horror that I was wearing not only two different sandels but they were different colors. My excuse was that I got dressed in the dark that morning, which was true.

This time, I was at church this morning, walking down the hall. I sort of felt like I was limping so I looked down at my feet and saw, once again, that I had two different shoes on. At least this time they were the same color.

I received a few comments and snickers, but it wasn't until I returned home later that I thought of what my reply should have been. "Why thank you, I have another pair just like them at home."

I Have Eaten Worms!

Cherries have always been my favorite fruit...ever since I can remember. I'd rather have a cherry pie than a birthday cake. And I can eat all the Bing cherries I want in the summertime with no adverse affects. So, on a drive through the mountains one afternoon just above Tum Tum, near our house, I passed by a HUGE cherry tree. It must have been planted when the pioneers or the early Indians roamed the country. It was at least 40 feet tall...or as tall as the ceiling in our ward chapel. And most amazing of all, every branch was covered, laden and drooping with red cherries!

As I filled a grocery bag I wondered why no one else seemed to be interested in this tree. Oh well, all the more for me, as I grabbed handful after handful of the precious fruit and once in a while popped one into my mouth.

After washing the cherries it was a long and tedious task (since I don't have a cherry pitter) to cut the pit out of each and every one. Finally, when I had a big pot full, I added water and sugar and set it on the warm burner of the stove. As I waited for the mixture to warm up and start boiling, I started to see little white things floating in the warm water. As I watched, the water got warmer and warmer and the white things began to wiggle!

The lesson of this story is to never eat the fruit of a wild and uncared-for cherry tree. My sister Rosalin said that once a tree is invested like that the only solution is to chop it down. And she thinks that there may be more to the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree.

Little Bird

I noticed a baby bird sitting on the grass while the sprinkler passed over it time and time again. It was searching for bugs and whatever else it could find in the wet grass. Once in a while it would take a few hops here and there, but it never strayed far from the spray of the sprinkler. I walked over to the wet little bird and amazingly it was not alarmed. But if I got too close it would hop just far enough to keep out of arms reach.

I knew that it was only a matter of time until my kitties discovered my new little friend. And sure enough, Buddy was first to spy it. He was making his way across the lawn when I ran to intercept him and carry him back to the house. Before I knew it Patsy was crouched and ready to go in for the kill. Again I ran across the lawn, swooping Patsy into my arms before she could reach the baby bird.

I hung on to Patsy, scratching and squirming, while I went to get the butterfly net. And then with the net in one hand and Patsy in the other I could be seen running all over the yard trying to net the little bird. We chased it to the edge of the lawn and it flew up into a tree. Surely it will be safe now, I thought.

A few minutes later out of the corner of my eye I saw Patsy in a crouched run across the grass. I took after her yelling as I went and watched in horror as she reached her victim and held it in her deadly grasp.

When I reached the scene Patsy let go of the bird and I could see it's defiant little stance; it stood with it's wings out-stretched and it's beak open wide, making the loudest noise it could. Patsy was taken-aback by this brave action and before she could regain her composure, I grabbed her, and was then ever so glad to see the little bird take off and fly away!

Fracas in the Night

The scariest thing that's happened to me in a long time happened the other night about 11 PM. Out of the bedroom window, which was open, I heard some sort of animal scream. I'm not sure to this day what kind of animal it was, but it was sort of high-pitched and in extreme distress. I quickly opened the bedroom door that leads outside to the back yard and to the forest beyond. Stepping out into the dark I could hear trampling in the underbrush and trees about 20 yards away. The trampling went on and on and around and around and it was accompanied by heavy breathing. I could tell by the breathing and the footsteps that it was a large animal, probably with hooves. After a couple of minutes the screaming stopped but the trampling and hard breathing continued. I ran and got the heavy-duty flashlight, but was unable to catch a glimpse of anything through the trees. I wish now that I had dared to step off the porch and creep a little closer. But I was terrified that whatever it was could come crashing down through the trees upon me. It was all I could do to aim the flashlight with one hand while still holding on to the doorknob to the house with the other hand.

The next day, in full sunlight, I walked up to the scene of crime and looked around for a few minutes. Because of the abundance of weeds, wildflowers and pine needles, it was hard to see any kind of track, only a few flattened weeds and scrapings in the soil. One thing I did see was the remains of a long-dead baby deer and a lot of old tufts of deer hair scattered around.

I'm wondering if this little clearing in the woods might have been the scene of other crimes and fracases in the night.

No Vacancy

I put up a really nice birdhouse last year in a the big Ponderosa Pine tree in back of the house. I can look up and see the little wood house out of the window when I'm in bed, so when I wake up in the morning one of the first things I do is check the birdhouse. I waited all summer last year for a little bird family to take up residence, but it remained vacant. This spring I had new hope that I'd get a renter and had almost given up hope. Then on the morning of June 15th I was awakened by a most unusual chirp. It was more like a full sentence-chirp...it went on and on. And I noticed that a little tiny bird kept popping in and out of the round door of the birdhouse. As I watched I could see that it was trying to get twigs, (some of them quite large) into the little round door. It reminded me of a pole vaulter holding a pole horizontally and trying to enter a small round door. Time after time the twig would fall and the bird would zoom down to retrieve it. Amazingly, progress was made and more and more twigs were making it into the birdhouse. Some of them were too big to fit all the way in, so they are sticking out a little bit.

I'm so excited to finally have a bird family to watch this summer. I can't wait to see little baby birds poking their heads out of the door and perched on the limb ready to try their wings. All I have to worry about now is keeping the cats away!