Around the yard

Our yard is geared towards the Spring and is currently about to display it's bounty in terms of amount of blooms. With the early bulbs just "going by" and the next wave of bulbs starting to open, the lilacs (all six varieties and colors) are in their full beauty. The irises will be next and are followed by the roses. These last three major groups are in profusion in our yard and make this little plot look like quite the pastel patchwork during the month of May. The sights and scents send me.
I walked around the yard today before the rain and planted annuals in the pots by the door, vegetables in the back (cucumbers and broccoli) and seeds next to them (carrots and beans) and then just looked at the double-petalled lilac in the next bed and our little Buddha in a nearby plot and just smiled as he is smiling.
An update: The bushtits are "on the nest". I'm of the opinion that the eggs must have been laid sometime last week and that mom has been sitting on them for a few days now. The hatching time is rather short - 1-2 weeks. So, I will have to keep you posted.

A poem

ODE TO MAO'S SPRING GARDEN

Whose yard this is I think I know.
She's acting in the village though;
She would not mind me stopping here
To watch her tulips bloom and grow.
That bushtit there must think it queer
That I should simply stand right here
Between 15th and her front door
This afternoon so bright and clear.

He gives his little beak a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sight's the sweep
Of buses, cars, and squeaky brake.

This garden's lovely green and lush
But duty calls, so on I rush,
And miles to go, so I must mush
And miles to go, so I must mush.

Poem written by my friend Pinky

Bloomsday bird

Last year, we did not have a Bushtit's nest. We thought we would as we watched a pair of birds inspect the old nest from the year before. Our puffed chests deflated later in the day when we realized that the birds were dismantling the old nest and recycling the materials into the new nest in one of the big fir trees at the back of our yard. I remember my confusion that day having left the house in the early morning filled with pride only to be stung and stunned on our return upon seeing NO NEST. There was not a scrap or a twig or a shred of old moss on the ground! All had been transported all day long to the new nest which was well outside of our range of easy observance.
Bushtits travel in social groups of about 40 and it is theorized that some or all of that band help each other in nest building. That, I sense, is why that old nest disappeared so quickly. So, there was no nest in the back yard last year.
In the very dogwood which is so heavy with blooms this year, however, we discovered chickadees in a nest chipped out by the parents. As I have written, there are many nooks and holes in this semi-decaying-yet- otherwise- thriving tree. The parents had picked the perfect site for their family which was about 10-12 feet above the ground and in the side of the tree away from street traffic. Fortunately for us, it also faced our front door so we could easily open the door a bit and watch whatever was going on through the screen door and know the family would be none the wiser for our snooping.
We watched mom as she sat on the nest and was brought food by dad. We learned when the eggs hatched and shortly after heard the first croaky baby calls when mom left the nest in search of food for all. Soon, we could actually see the little faces of the family (there were 4 chicks) popping up by the opening whenever a parent left to hunt for food. The calls were louder, quite insistent, and longer.
Not long after this, the strongest, we imagine, started bravely hopping on the edge of the opening to the nest. There were creaky wing flaps and teetery hops in and out. We saw a lot of this one night and the next morning saw this brave little bird on the ground at the bottom of the tree. It apparently had fallen badly and not made it. This just dispirited me and made me very cautious in my snooping on the remaining babies. I just didn't want anything else to "go wrong" (even though my sense of reality told me, of course, that I had very little to do with anything going either "wrong" or "right" for the birds).
Just one or two days later, we looked out on that morning in June and heard nothing. Not a peep. The birds, the remaining 3, had fledged and we had missed it! Again, I felt blue but with the reality that the others had made it out of the nest and off into the "wilds of Seattle". I needn't have been so sure though when I heard the distinct and very loud Chickadee call coming from the grove of Epimedium at the base of the tree. Then I heard and saw both parents responding to the alarm of the baby. I figured out that yet another one had fallen and was stuck in the bushes in our rock garden.
I wanted more than anything to DO something but I stopped myself as all good birders must and simply watched what unfolded. Both parents called and called until the baby bird emerged from the small shrubs, resting whenever it could. Then one or the other parent hopped up on the tree, calling all the while, leading the baby forward. In time, the baby followed wobbling and stopping and loudly calling whenever the parents flew elsewhere (probably to tend to the other two fledglings). I watched this little bird hop out of the shrub and up the side of the tree, onto limb after limb, until it finally got to nest level 6 HOURS LATER. There it stayed for quite some time and this is the picture you see of the bird calling very loudly to his parents. At this point, I had to run into the house for some reason or other and when I returned, I was only able to locate him in a new, higher limb for a mere second before he flew away! This all happened last June on Bloomsday and so I named him Leopold. (Double click the photo for a closer look)

A new nest

Watching the Bushtits build their new nest methodically, meticulously has been a joy each year we've been lucky enough to watch it out our back window. I called them architects earlier. That's so but I'd bet that they're interior designers as well. This past week, they've been inside the nest working. One will fly in and spend several minutes there pushing something into place, poking it's beak into the wall while prodding some feather or piece of lint or moss firmly into place to cushion both mom and the chicks. We can only imagine the inside of this new home in which they'll spend only a few short weeks but, given their skill on the outside, I'm sure the inside is equally marvelous and pretty with it's many varied greens and soft browns. This nest building is fascinating and soothing to witness. We're reassured that "our" little birds will have a safe home.

The Merlins inhabit someone else's old home. I'm relieved to share that we've discovered the new location. In the tree photo, if you look to the right of the trunk, you'll see a few dark twigs and small branches. Voila! That's the new home. It's all we can see of it anyway. It seems that what the nest lacks in beauty and "amenities", it has in security. This picture, unfocussed as it is, is really the best angle for viewing. That's how well covered this nest is and that's how the Merlins (Spike, the female, is pictured) prefer it. I took the shot with my point and shoot from the lens of a birding scope on closeup focus. This look is the best, at the moment, that we'll get until the nest is weighed down by Mom and the kids and buffeted a bit from the winds and rain. These factors always change viewing but, for now, we "gawkers" in the neighborhood will just have to see what we can see and compare notes. It's somewhat ironic that our neighborhood predators, the Merlin Falcons, are hidden away about 100 feet up in a fir tree while the wee Bushtits in our yard dangle on a rose branch 7 feet above the cats and in plain view of the crows.

An old tree

Our old dogwood has probably been around longer than we have. For a dogwood, that is a very long time especially given the disease it has had since way before we got to the neighborhood. Dogwoods around here are susceptible to Botrytis which eats away at the tree and kills it fairly quickly. When we moved here almost 17 years ago, the tree had long since been sick and had a large, dead limb at the top of the tree. We had a tree surgeon lop off that dead wood and look over the rest of it as it never seemed to bloom much back then and just seemed to be getting more and more ill with each passing season. He said, with care and coddling, we might just limp it along for a few more years.

We did this. We fed the earth each Spring and Fall and even though parts of the tree died away and fell off, the core of the tree seemed to improve enormously. The evidence was that new limbs elsewhere emerged and each Spring more and more and more flowers bloomed. We had a second tree expert out to prune some big firs in the backyard a few years ago and, of course, had him look at the Dogwood. He looked it over and pronounced it quite, quite fit. Regardless of how the trunk looked, he thought the tree might just outlive us all!

This year, this shabby looking tree has produced more blooms than it ever has. You both can and cannot tell a book by it's cover or a tree by it's trunk.

Scissortails, Redbirds, Ricebirds, my birds

I've begun rehearsing "Trip to Bountiful" by Horton Foote. It takes place in Houston and further south and follows Carrie Watts' trip to the home of her youth. When she finally gets there, she hears a redbird's song and asks about it. As a very basic birder myself, I had to question just what that bird, a redbird, was. So, last night I did a little "Googling" and discovered that, most likely, a redbird was a reference to just that: a RED bird and probably connoted a tanager or a cardinal. The bird was definitely red at the end of the day.
The scissortail was easier by far to uncover. There are scissortail flycatchers which are all over the state of Texas in the summertime. I looked them up in Sibley and saw all I needed to see there. They are lovely, rather small birds and beautifully colored and with the longest tail feathers for a small bird that you'll ever see. These tail feathers, in flight, open into an inverted V shape and thus put one in mind of open scissor blades. This was a great discovery.
Another mention was of ricebirds. This was a bit more obscure as the definition specified nothing more than birds which fed around rice fields. Bob-o-links were one of the birds mentioned (though only as migrants). Since their name and repute struck me as kind of mysterious and delightful, I chose them as the ricebirds mentioned in the play. How fickle!

Last night, we took our short, flat walk. This was for the exercise of course but, for me, was for the Merlins. Immediately, we went to the "new" site and heard Spike calling out and "picking" but could see no nest site once again. I spent minutes looking and looking for both the bird and the nest site and saw neither. This worries me thoroughly as it bodes badly for a new clutch. Maybe it's just human failing that I cannot see a platform up in that tree! I really do not know and I certainly don't have the knowlege to assess this year's circumstances properly with the information I have. I can only hope (and pray) that the nest is there and my binocs are just not strong enough to see it. I'll just have to keep looking and reporting.

On the other hand, the Bushtits' nest is there, done, full, and ready to go. I watched it tonight but could see no movement nor any birds flying to and fro. That means nothing, though, as the mother could already be inside and sitting on eggs and, thus, not moving! So, I am at that pivotal point with these birds as well as the Merlins. We HAVE A NEST but lack the information! We may have a Merlin nest as well but need the visual information to prove it. In the play, we have the familiar names of the birds but lack the scientific information to identify them ornithologically. Like life (and the play), what a load of questions!

Look at this wee bird!

I've been madly doing chores all the day long because my free time is restricted as of tomorrow. Of the many tasks and desires on my list was the notation to "try to get a bird photo". The only way I could do that was to use the bigger lens and wait for many hours to catch the little critter in the 1.3 seconds it takes to enter and leave the nest. So, the lens has been trained on the nest for the entire day and I've been dashing back and forth after tasks are ticked off that list to spend 5 min. here and there waiting and watching. Just 10 minutes ago (and before cleaning the house), I gave myself the many minutes it would need to simply stand and watch the nest with my camera trained on the big lens, long distance glasses on my face, close ups around my neck and arms aching, screaming from holding them up for minutes at a time. As I stood there stubbornly watching the nest move gently as the bird inside poked and pushed whatever structural material it had in it's beak into place on the inside, I began to doubt this particular desire. The birds are so small and so fast that there didn't seem much sense waiting............. All of a sudden at the mouth of the nest was the Bushtit! There it was and I clicked and hoped, hoped, hoped that I'd managed some image. Enjoy the result.

Birds and a basket

A number of friends and I have been watching the Merlins carefully these past few days trying to divine just what is going on. As I've said, they seem to have relocated their nesting area about 1 block to the east. The problem is that there is no nest/crow's platform that can be seen in the tree. That said, plenty of crows have been "buzzing" our birds, Spike particularly. This would lead me to believe that there is indeed a crows nest somewhere close and they're just trying to protect it. We return to the old question though: where are Spike and Thor going to nest?
The past couple of nights have found them in a very cone-filled, tall, and heavily filled out fir tree and the tree next to it. Spikes's calls ring through the evening air but even a very careful scan of each upper branch of the tree with our binoculars yields nothing. Last night, finally, Spike moved out of the branch cover and we could see her at last. So, if there is a nesting spot there, it would be perfect. The pair have been courting so the need for a nest might be nearing the urgent phase. I'll swing by the site again tonight to see if the situation has settled or, gulp, changed again.
Our Bushtits have been working furiously and reweaving the nest, patching the holes and sheer spots and even (you can compare this photo with prior pix) weaving it around an upper crook of the rose bush thus offering much more stability. These birds are such architects!
Inside, apparently, is yet another environment with strength, of course, stressed to support mother and chicks. Almost more importantly though is softness, cushioning. Mosses and small found feathers and even laundry lint are massed to create a soft pillow for the new family. This is such a contrast to the recycled nest the Merlins use which is constructed of small branches and twigs and, by the time the second owners' nest, is filled with bugs, feathers, last years' food scraps and the birds' droppings. Yikes!
Neither of these habits, though, make one bird more or less appealing or appalling. I love following them both and will continue posting the lastest.
Finally, the basket pictured is my first. It is a Cedar Sampler I learned to make yesterday and is constructed using some NW native methods and, certainly, materials. There is Cedar, Wild Cherry bark, Sweet Grass, and Bear Grass woven in it and it smells of the forest. The weave is involving (it took all day) but fun and I couldn't be happier with the result, however funky.

Local birds

This beautiful bird is called a Merlin falcon (this photo was taken by nature photographer Marve Breece) and is one of the pair that has been nesting in our neighborhood the past 3 years. This is incredible because it is the first nesting pair to have been documented in the city. Merlins have probably been living here for some time but nobody's ever watched, photographed, and written about them before. We have long since nicknamed the female, Spike (for a white patch on her head 3 years ago) and her mate, Thor (short for nearby Thornton Creek) and cheered the pair on through 2 successful fledges of 5 each season.
This year we were in the process of finding the new nest site (in the neighborhood but very much out in the open and exposed to all manner of traffic) when the storms and winds I've been writing about struck and brought change to these bigger birds not unlike the changes brought to the wee Bushtits here in my backyard. We heard and observed the pair the past couple of nights in the old neighborhood and found that quite curious as they should be at the new nest. Through the grapevine, we learned that the wind had really moved and unsettled the nest site. Plus, crows had been pestering the Merlins of late. These factors seem to have pushed the pair to choose at this late date another nest site. As Merlins, for some reason, don't build their own nests like our little Bushtits do so well, they'll have to locate another crow's platform high up in a fir tree. Perhaps what we observed last night was the new home! I'm going out to check on this now and will post more results later.

Dandelions

When I was a kid in Maine, I remember hearing some "old timers" waxing enthusiastically about eating Dandelion greens and Fiddleheads (emerging young ferns) in the early spring. Their delight in talking about these "delicacies" made a big impression on me which remained anchored on that big back burner all these years and emerging only as curiosity every once in a while as Spring rolled around. In contrast, my Dad's dislike of Dandelions and ferocious pursuit of their eradication took root in my brain pan as well.
It is this duality which has been at play in my own yard over the years. Unwittingly for a few years, I actually increased my Dandelions' number by 50% by pulling them out by their roots but not the COMPLETE root system. Ergo, that root remainder grew 2 plants from one. I found I wanted to "eradicate" them like my Dad but was opposed completely to any herbicides. So, if I wanted to get rid of them, I had to pursue a natural path. Indeed, one year I poured vinegar down the root holes. That worked a little but also produced large bare spots in the yard which only opened paths to many other weeds. For the last several years hearing that the first Dandelion flowers of the year produced the best crop via seed dispersal, I voraciously whacked the flower heads with the Weedwhacker and worked just as hard to rake up the remains. Alas, I never could compete with the ingenious seed dispersal and found, rather than fewer, there were exponentially more and more dandelions the following year.
This history brings me to last Thanksgiving and how I finally decided to use the Dandelions rather than fight them. At a friends' home, I tasted, once again, their homemade Dandelion Wine and this time, it made a big impression on me. It is a light, tasty, pretty looking wine and, indeed, proves itself to be quite a delicacy in the late Fall. As I sipped that light yellow gold nectar, I remembered the old timers and pictured my own yard in early spring and decided to make the effort this year.
I'm midstream with the process. It's been strained a couple of times and seems to be fermenting nicely. I check it every couple of days and it still seems to be some time away from "clearing". The process was initially very time consuming in that each stem and base had to be removed from each flower (a gallon's worth of them!). That was the definition of labor intensive for me! Once that was done, the rest seemed quite easy and fascinating. I'll keep you posted but, for now, here's the recipe (the result of clearing a gallon's worth of early dandelions will be told next Spring):

Dandelion Wine (from Cooks.com)

Pour one gallon of boiling water over 1 gallon dandelion blossoms and let them stand in a cool place for 72 hours. Pour liquid in a kettle and add the rind of 2 lemons and 2 oranges grated fine. Boil for 1/2 hour.

Add 2 1/2 to 3 pounds of sugar (I used organic) and the pulp and juices from the fruit. Allow the mixture to cool, then add 1/2 of a yeast cake (or 2 packets). Let sit for a couple minutes then strain through a fine mesh cloth and allow the liquid to stand for a week in a warm place. Repeat straining to assure a clear liquid (I use an unbleached coffee filter). When it stops fermenting, bottle the wine.

(Blossoms must be gathered while the sun is shining or the flavor will be lost.)

Bushtits nest

Here are two photos of the nest. One (slightly in shade) was taken just after the wind storm and shows some damage from those winds. The second photo (taken this morning and in bright sun at the moment) shows a more solid, repaired nest which just may be inhabited already.
It's hard to know when the birds "move in". There is no address sign set out. The nest is completed; the eggs are laid; the parents sit on the eggs until they hatch and then work like mad to protect and feed the chicks until they fledge. Two years ago, we noticed that there was vague motion of the bottom of the nest/sack. A short time later, we saw increased activity from the parents flying in and out of the nest and saw 3 little open mouths peering out of the nest opening for a few seconds after a parental departure. We continued watching as much as possible but missed the chicks fledging a few weeks later. One day, the nest was empty! That was all. This year I will try to be more vigilant without being intrusive. Since the nest is so very clearly seen from our window, it should be much easier.

Winds

The last couple of days have been challenging because of the winds. We were to be away from the city for a couple of days and during a rather wicked early Spring storm here which struck on Friday. The nest and it's builders weighed on my mind. Where were they? Would the nest hold up in 40-50 mph gusts? I did not see the birds at all before I left on Friday in the middle of the storm and, naturally, feared the worst. The ferry trip to the Peninsula was really rocking and rolling amid 5-7 ft swells. I don't think I'd ever taken a trip so choppy. That night, we were pounded by winds, cold, and torrents of rain until well into the evening.
The pictures I've posted are of the clouds which told the tale of the night before and it's weather and the days to come and their storms. The blues, grays, and whites seemed especially beautiful to me even though they foretold more drama and threat to the bushtits' nest.
So, with today's rains on the way, I can share that the birds are alive and well and working feverishly to repair their home! On arrival home, I dumped the bags inside and ran outside and back to see what was going on. Imagine my thrill as seeing both birds patching the holes the weather caused and weaving the ends around the thorns again. The wind and rain both buffeted the shrub enough that the "cover" for the nest is sparser. I worry for that and other preying birds and cats but will settle for seeing this pair working and near their new residence. Hooray!
Those clouds did their best to disrupt this microcosm but, alas, didn't succeed (this time anyway).