PM and L, and Red the Squirrel has to find a new home.

Pale Male waits on the nest.

Lola has dinner.

Look under and up at her anterior side. See the bare areas and sparse feathers which denote her brood patch? Lola has a brood patch being female and Pale Male although he takes his turn sitting the eggs, doesn't. It hasn't held him back as far as I can tell.

Pale Male Irregular and correspondent Stella Hamilton, was at The Bench and watched a food delivery by Pale Male to Lola. They continue to take care of normal nest business but there is no sign of feeding behavior.

Stella also reported the feeding at the Cathedral Nest to those on The Bench who happily received it , though it did make Pale Male and Lola's lack of a hatch seem even more definite as the Fifth Ave. hawks began sitting eggs about a week before Tristan and Isolde.

Now we come to Red the Squirrel, who tough and fierce for her size, still couldn't fight off the bigger Grey Squirrel who then took over her cavity. Stella had also mentioned that Red was now wearing her striped summer outfit. I asked,"Striped summer outfit?" And here is Stella's response.

Hi Donna,

Yeah, I first noticed Red's black stripes in the spring of 2006. It's actually situated bilaterally, separating the white fur on her belly from the russet brown fur on her back. Then when winter '06 came the stripes disappeared. I looked for them last weekend and didn't see them. Then Voila ! She decided to put her stripes on this weekend. It's a very sexy summer dress, I think. I also would like to share that she has reoccupied the other tree holes in her yard, since a grey squirrel had kicked her out of her apartment. She is also enjoying a variety of foods made available to her by mother nature such as young leaves, shoots and pods , not to mention the usual supermarket bought nuts we bring to her. It seems to me she may be tending to the black walnut tree outside the wire fence, since I've often seen her visiting that tree. Soon she'll be batting at those walnuts until they fall to the ground ,then she'll be harvesting them and stashing them away into her "middens". That's all for now. We hope to see you soon.

Stella

Donegal Browne