Woodlets 2010

This little guy and his nestmates are coming out any day now. We first heard the woodlets (presumably more than one, based on noise level) on May 1, Saturday, which was 29 days ago; previous years tell us that they come out after about 30 days, and here they are showing their little heads in the last week, right on schedule. So exciting! I somehow can't remember if I took these photos Thursday or Friday evening.


Dad arriving with food


Dad hopping into the hole with food


Headind up to the top of the tree, post-feeding


Junior looking out, post-feeding


Dad hanging out up top

Fritz, Saturday Morning

Junior Scrub Jay 2010, Friday Afternoon

I saw two of them at the feeders on Friday—or rather, in the trees by the feeders, impatiently waiting for their parent bird to give them some food. These are photos of just one junior.

Fritz, Friday Evening

Hamilton, Friday Evening

Billboard on Highway 71 West

Iron Butterfly

Seen in the hill country southwest of Austin on Sunday afternoon, high atop a (maybe expired) telephone pole.

Our New Statue

Hugh and I spent the weekend erecting a giant statue of Anubis on our land; then we drove many miles away to photograph it from afar. That's our house just to the right of his hand where it's grasping his staff. It's just our little tribute to Lost on this, the day of the absolutely last episode ever of the series. What are we going to do when it is over??

Anubis is considered by many to be the most ancient of Egyptian gods. He judged the dead, weighing their souls to compare the good vs. evil they had done, which seems fitting to the Lost theme. Besides, I like his look more than I like Taweret's.

Hugh Loves Ruby

Mothfest 2010: Part II

Same snouty moth as in the last photographs of the last post, but with wings opened. Beautiful!

Mothfest 2010: Part I

It is moth season, though presence and activity have been much more intermittent than in some years, what with all the crazy cool weather we've been having. Most (all?) of these photos were taken on May 4th.






Above & below are the same moth, with different lighting

Yes, Virginia, There IS a Third Owlet!

No photos, but we saw it emerge briefly on Thursday evening around 8 p.m. or so. It wa just a tiny little thing, seeming even smaller than the bad photo from the other day. Also, we figured out that the window of the box is about 8 inches high, in case anyone has been just dying to know so they could figure out about how big the owlets are. Seems as though last night's little guy didn't even come up to the halfway mark.

My Mother's Owl, 2010: A Third Owlet?

This quite terrible photo was taken this evening as the light was fading and I was very tired. I present it nonetheless because we believe this to be a third owlet! See how much shorter than the others it is. I think it would be even if it were standing up on its little legs; it had a smaller aspect overall. No owlets had been seen at all today until this one climbed up out of the depths of the box.

My Mother's Owl, 2010: Owlets!

Owls nested in my mother's owl nest box for the first time (that we know of or saw) last year; you can see one of them here. But this year, we have seen the owlets! I present to you Castor and Pollux. We hope she will forgive me for momentarily forgetting which is which, but you can tell them apart by their eyes. These photos are from last Thursday, 5.6.2010, the first day they were spotted.

Buzzard and Blue Sky

San Antonio Graffiti

Loretta on the Patio

Scorpions 2010: #1

Found around 11 p.m. on May 7, Friday, on the little rug by Hugh's side of the bed.

Jessie on the Patio

Feeding Frenzy

It's what the parent woodpeckers are now doing all day, every day. Here we have a beakful of madrone berries.

In Town: Starlets and Flags

I spotted this starling and her (his?) little starlets in a tree in a parking lot near my office. Their two little heads were poking out, just looking around, and then the parent showed up with food.






I love this store. Can you tell that they sell flags there?

Grand Moth

This is possibly the best moth photograph I have ever taken. I found this moth in an empty juice jar, rinsed, that was sitting on the counter waiting to be put into the recycling bin. I poured him out. He sat there and dried while I photographed. Later, he left. He was approximately 2 inches or slightly more from wingtip to wingtip.

Woodie. Dad. 2010.

While sitting on the patio Saturday evening with friends, the static-y sound of woodlets was heard for the first time in 2010! There are babes in the nesting tree (I predict 3, or maybe 5) and the parents are working full-time feeding them. Here's Dad just emerging from the hole; you can see his tongue just barely poking out.

A sad note: the cardinal nest outside the kitchen window lost its 2 or 3 eggs last night. I'd just implemented the keeping-in of the cats for the next 3-4 weeks while birds nest, so we know it wasn't them, and besides, there is no trace of the eggs. They are gone—not knocked to the ground, but GONE. Snakes? Um, raccoons? What else takes bird eggs from nests? I feel terrible for the parents, but hope they'll try again soon.

Oak Grapes

But they're not grapes. Nor are they eyeballs a la "Brother From Another Planet"—you know, when Joe Morton takes his eyeball out of his head and leaves it in a potted plant so he can spy on the suspected heroin dealers. I believe that these little grapey things which are all over one, just one, of the little starter oaks flourishing at the edge of the front patio are actually oak galls in a stage earlier than I've seen them before. But I really don't know squat about such things, so don't quote my post in your science report, okay?