We have a year-round crow pair that raise one chick each year. My wonderful neighbor said to me, "That baby crow sure is old. It's been here for THREE years!"   I guess that is conceivable but more than likely, each year we have a new baby. The behavior is the same. Once fledged, it follows the parents around relentlessly, begging for food. It is an endless CAW-ing, CAW-ing and then when the parents stuff food down its throat, the really awful gurgling/cawing combination of sounds is VERY audible.

Crows have a territory and our little slice of heaven appears to belong to this group. They are ever present. How the little birds, the BIMBY,  raise their young is nothing short of amazing. The crows rob nests of eggs and baby birds. My same neighbor has taken to putting out cooked chicken for the crows in the hopes that they will not be hungry and will leave the little birds alone. I hope this works .

This image is part of my RORSCHACH series. I took the photograph and then have digitally enhanced it. This design, when repeated side to side, head to head and feet to feet, creates a really interesting pattern that I hope to turn into wrapping paper. Note the optical illusion, the glowing......

These sweet little birds spend their time here year-round. They bathe in my fountain, they grab a black sunflower seed from the feeder, put it between their feet and hit it with their little beaks until they get the seed, they raise their babies, their chirps and trills are so very welcome. Of all the BIMBY, they are the ones I know the best.

They also love the SUET FEEDERS. I cannot have these feeders out for about 2 months a year because of a yearly invasion of STARLINGS that come for the fruit on my neighbor's tree. I really can't abide these birds and their pushy ways, but they are certainly intelligent and I guess have a place, just not in my yard.

So I just put the SUET FEEDERS back up and the chickadees, a scrub jay and a black, female squirrel (this is a first; they are normally little boys) all chowed down this morning. Very sweet.

I was in Reno for the first time a week ago and witnessed a most interesting communal building of nests by cliff swallows. The Truckee River runs right through the middle of downtown Reno and the swallows are building their nests beneath the bridges crossing the river. They were flying all about as they normally do, but what they were doing on the banks of the river, I had never seen before. They were all fluttering, and at first I thought these were baby birds and their parents were feeding them; it was that kind of FLUTTERING. However, it didn't seem like anyone was getting fed. Then I thought perhaps it was a mating ritual; but no mating was going on. Finally I realized that they were doing some sort of MUD DANCE and working themselves up, grabbing mud in their beaks and then flying up to continue the building of their mud nests. It was quite amazing and like nothing I had seen before. Here is a link to the event:http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Cliff+swallows+building+their+nests&view=detail&mid=7CC872D78A7348B798F37CC872D78A7348B798F3&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR 

When we first purchased our home, a number of years ago, Wes was outside hosing down the cement area when one first walks into our yard. He came in quickly and said that a baby bird was on the cement and that he had hosed it accidentally. I ran out and picked it up. I could not see a nest, but back then the word was that found baby birds should NOT be returned to the nest as the parents would reject it with human scent on it. This of course was found to be incorrect information. I brought the featherless little bird inside, warmed it up and found out from one of the veterinarians i was working with at the Animal Clinic of Santa Cruz, that the best thing to feed it was watered down dog food (cat food has too much protein) using a syringe without the needle to administer the food. Well, little BeeBee started feathering out and I kept her in our parlor which had no furniture in it, nothing on the walls, floor torn up and she could be quite free inside there.
She started flying about after a couple of months, maybe three, and I made the decision to take her out and let her go. I was deeply saddened as she was quite attached to me and I her, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
So I went to my front porch and let her go. She immediately flew out and dropped down onto the middle of our main street. She seemed to just sit there. The neighbor across the street had a golden retriever and they live for birds as you can imagine. So he charged little BeeBee and I screamed out, "No, no. That's my little pet bird!". The dog owner called him off and BeeBee heard me and flew right up to me. I brought her inside and thought today was not the day for BeeBee to go free.
Each day after that one however, I took her outside and she flew from my second story front porch over to the pine trees across the street, fooled around for a few minutes and then flew back to me. This went on for months. Finally, one day there was a sparrow party of sorts, gathered outside the parlor windows. I came in to the room and BeeBee acted like a wild bird. She WANTED to go out and it was very obvious to me that she had heard the call of the wild and would be okay. I opened the front door and released her and never was sad and never saw her again. It was the perfect ending.

While walking on West Cliff today, several groups of pelicans, also known as pods or squadrons, flew overhead and the varying coloration caught my eye. Some had dark breasts, some were white; then some had dark heads and others were white.  I am sure it has to do with maturation as well as breeding plummage. So looking it up online, it appears that the juvenile pelicans have a dark head and a white underbelly. It takes some 3 years to be fullly mature. In adult birds the plumage plays a significant role in communication. Both sexes are alike, although males are on average slightly larger. During  the breeding period, prior to nesting, the hind neck becomes vibrant dark  reddish brown. In the winter or during the non-breeding period the head and neck  are mainly white.

I wonder how many of you know that the brown pelican is the only pelican that dives for its food. Other pelicans scoop up their meal often after gathering together and flapping their wings to bring a school of fish into the shallows. All pelicans tilt their head back to let out the water and swallow their food right away, no storing as some might think.

They are exceptionally buoyant due to the internal air sacks beneath their skin
and in their bones, which I think is pretty interesting.

I have prepared a feeder solution of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water and filled a hooded oriole feeder hoping to attract the parents that have set up shop in the Palm tree next door. Not seen any babies. We have a crow family that is really obnoxious and I am afraid they are offing eggs and babies. My neighbor is putting out chicken meat for the crows to hopefully fill them  up!  We will see how this works.

My feeder has not been found yet. I know it can take time.

Hooded orioles create a woven basket for the nest that is made of the dried palm STRINGS, for lack of a better word. They weave the string into the underside of a Palm frond.

I found these pictures I took of the bird bath I put together using a plant tray fitted into a redwood hanging planter. The little bushtits were delightful as they jockeyed for position. When they first approached the bath, they were soooo wary. They would touch down on the rocks, but then jump back to the planter edge. It took some time before they finally bathed. The different sizes of rocks allowed them to get to the right depth of water. Without the rocks, I don't think they would have gone in.

The parents could not be more attentive. The baby is out and getting lessons as it hops about. It can only fly a bit. I have a lot of hiding places however, with ivy covering the fence and low shrubs. Plan to put out a low bowl of water with different sized rocks in it. This allows for different sized birds. A tray that you might use beneath a plant is a very easy bird bath.

Today my yard sounded like there were some 30 bushtits, tsking about. Busy little birds, some of my favorites. Although they are perhaps not as showy as some of the little birds, they are INNOCENTS. We have a nest from some years back. It is shaped liked a soft, spongey sock. It has a hole in the top and is about 8 inches long. The eggs and then the babies are way down in the bottom of the nest and the parents enter and exit through the hole.

I was able to find a picture of a couple of nests. They REALLY feel spongey, all moss and soft things these little birds have collected. More than anything, all the BIMBY (Birds In My Back Yard), require WATER. Many people don't realize how important this is.....MORE important than food when the weather is dry. Birds need to bath to get the dust off. VERY IMPORTANT. Using a tray that you would use beneath a plant is a great bird bath. I hung one using a plant hanger a few years ago and it was pretty cool seeing 8 or 9 little bushtits taking a bath.

BIMBY stands for Birds In My Back Yard!

Today the female hooded oriole was outside my kitchen window. Living on the second story of our Victorian home, we get quite the bird's eye view. She looks a little like a yellowish mocking bird. She tisked around the apricot tree looking for bugs. I am preparing a sugar water feeder for her little family.