Hi Tweets!

We seem to be surrounded by newly fledged babies suddenly. While walking
yesterday, I came across two Steller's fledglings (still bush-bound) who
eyed me with great curiosity as they bounced around the underbrush.

And I finally attracted an Anna's hummer to my yard (with the help of some
fuschias) and it, too, is a fledgling. The first time I've EVER seen one
this young. It spends half it's time pulling the last vestiges of down from
under it's new feathers and the other half vigorously defending the feeder.
Too cute!

Last night Dad Brewer's Blackbird brought his two youngsters down for the
first time and they promptly drove him nuts! While at the same time the
House Finches were facing the same ordeal.

Two funny occurrences yesterday. We had decided to take down our feeder
(the landlord cometh) and clean up the mess when a
recently-fledged-but-not-adventurous-yet House Finch arrived for his evening
meal. There was no evening meal and he stood on the porch railing looking
forlorn and peeping! How could we say no to that little face? So back up
went the feeder before the porch had been fully cleaned.

The other cute occurrence concerns a House Sparrow. Now I know this is not
the most popular bird (understatement, right?) on the west coast but this
was so comical I have to tell you about it. I was buzzing through the
parking lot near the beach when I came across this male House Sparrow trying
to court a nearby female. He was dancing around her, singing and generally
doing everything possible to impress her. In the midst of all this was a
fledgling who was demanding to be fed. The whole thing had a look of utter
chaos!

One last sighting that was pretty neat to watch. Remember we've had a pair
of Kestrels nesting not far away. I don't know what started the dispute but
yesterday morning in the pea-soup fog was this Kestrel being unmercifully
harassed by a pair of Scrub Jays. And then a pair of Steller's Jays and
then a Mockingbird. It had made the horrid mistake of landing in a tree
that was in the middle of, seemingly, EVERYBODY'S territory! Well, this
went on for a few minutes as they all took turns dive bombing this poor bird
- all of them screeching, squawking and carrying on - when I guess he'd had
enough. Suddenly, in the midst of a dog fight with a Scrub Jay he turned
around and began chasing the Jay! What a surprise - at least it was for the
Jay! Sadly, I had to leave and get ready for another (in the endless stream
of) job interview so I don't know how it ended.

Peggi
Ben & Peggi Rodgers
Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
USA
woodduck at cruzio.com


"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
It sings because it has a song"