We put out grape jelly today for our bird friends (many photos)

[calimary]

12. OMG! I LOVE this!!! Our little birds' nest is now officially back in use again

for the third year in a row!

Little black-hooded birds built it up in the corner of the overhang above our front door. Those birds, I have since learned, are called Black Phoebes. I used to call them "tuxedo birds" because they had little white/cream-color breasts and dark gray wings and back and tail. And a little black head. And their tails twitch up and down when they're communicating or excited or agitated. They're the cutest things!

Two years ago we noticed there were little lumps of mud that started appearing up at the top of the wall under the eaves. Before you knew it, there was a nest! I thought it was a swallow's nest because they make mud nests up high on walls.

And soon enough, I noticed there was activity coming from there. Every time we'd open the front door, there was this SWOOP! Something flying out in a big curved SWOOP from up in the corner there across the front yard to the nearest tree. ZOOM! There it went. So fast you could barely see it. A few weeks later, noise! Little chirping and cheeping coming from up there, and soon enough, little bird heads were sticking up from down in the nest. Last year, toward the end of April I heard 'em again. And the next day, we saw this little head sticking up, mouth WIDE open. The next day we saw two little heads. Next day there were three. And eventually there were FOUR! And of course, the swooping. LOTS of swooping, as the parent got the hell outta there and flew to the nearest tree. Sometimes the mom would perch there and squawk at her hatchlings. She'd be yelling at them really loud - probably trying to tell them to lay low cuz there were creatures lurking (us).

Then there comes the time when the hatchlings are getting bigger, so big at one point that they don't all fit in the nest anymore. Then inevitably one of 'em winds up living on the edge of the nest, or what you see are little bird butts sticking out the nest because they can't all fit in down inside there. And then, by Mother's Day, they're all grown enough to leave the nest and fly out into the world. I have seen the first flight of two generations of last-bird-to-leave-nest. The first flight is always a little shaky. I watched one fly out and wobble around the tree in front, and then zoom off. Guess it finally got its bearings.

So now, we're starting to have SWOOPING again! Third year in a row! Wonder if these are the kids from last year? The grandchildren of the year before? I'm just loving it. Kinda glad it's happening now. When I get the blues too badly about what's happened with that crashed airplane, I go out and watch the birdies. It's so healing.

LOVING it!!! Just freakin' LOVING it!!! Especially this week. Sorta restores my faith!