Pale Male's Egg Retrieval Postponed and Things Noticed at Evening

8:16pm What may look like a inconsequential puddle to us, is a lovely vernal pond if you're a Chipping Sparrow in the market for an evening bath.

Flowers on the verge of the trees.

A jumble of greenery reclaiming fallen wood.

Unfortunately this gentleman backs his trailer into the woods and squashes it all without a second thought.

Including the grouping of False Solomon Seal and so much more.

8:37:13pm It is so near dark, at first I can't see what the Robin is collecting near Chippie's little vernal pond. Therefore I surmise he is collecting worms for a nearby fledgling.

But it turns out not to be the case. Look at his muddy chest. He is collecting grass swaddled in mud for a new nest. Off he goes with a beak full.

Then back again with another bit of grass to coat with mud. I'd always wondered exactly how they did it.

Then across the way, a huddle of fungi.

A stone sits in a ring of cuddling sand.

The ants have chosen it to roof their tunnel entrances. Left you'll see two which haven't made it to bed quite yet.

Earlier in the day, Dad Grackle and two Fledglings arrived at the feeding station. While the first attempted to eat the bolts holding the glider together, the second harried Dad.

Note how Dad always turns his head to the side to insert the row of seeds within his beak.

Pokes his beak in and shoves the seeds out with his tongue.

Then stacks more in, and again the side, and the slide in.

And again,

And again to the side,

And the slide of seeds.

And it starts all over again.

A Red-winged Blackbird crouches on the grain separator for the attack.

And hardly to be missed, the small male Downy Woodpecker drums on a hollow trunk making it sound like a kettle drum. He then moves his head swiftly from center to left, center to left, center to left as if waiting for something to appear, and then the drum begins apace, his beak a blur of blows. Then once again the center to left to center to left--waiting.

Ah yes, waiting. Today, Thursday, was to be the day the window washer was to retrieve the eggs from Pale Male and Lola's nest for we hoped a diploid test to check for fertility and we'd hoped a DNA sample. But it's not to be. The window washer doesn't feel comfortable about retrieving the eggs, therefore it must wait until later in the summer when once again a swing stage is rigged and work on the facade begins. This does not bode well for the testing we'd most like to see happen.

Donna Browne