This & That

Hummingbird Wars

From watching the return of "The Birds" to the cabin feeder, I have learned a few things.

First of all, hummingbirds are vicious little bounders.

Take this guy for instance. He thinks he's the boss. Now, there are six feeding holes around this feeder, but do you think he can stand to have any other birds getting something to eat? Noooooo.

Hummingbirds apparently like to have all six feeding holes to themselves and will dive-bomb other birds to keep it that way.

And they fan their tails out to make themselves look larger and very scary. "Stayawayfrommyfoodgetawayfrommyfood!!" They will also occasionally dive at innocent photographers who aren't at all interested in their food and sound like huge bees when they are doing it, nearly giving said picture-taker a heart attack.

We were able to see five at once on the feeder, but I could only catch four in the same picture.

It's pretty entertaining to watch the battles over the feeder.

And Over He Goes...

Not the best composition and such, but it's documented, and he's so happy about it.

 

 

 

 

 

One---Twoooo---Freeeee

The SGB is pretty darn good at counting the "boys."

 

 

Robin's Egg Blue

We took San Diego Boy straight up to the cabin after dinner. We figured he would enjoy some time in the hills. We only had overnight and the next day to spend, but we had a good time and will head up again this weekend.

One of the first things we did was check out the robin's nest. It was totally empty. We didn't really know what to think of that. It's only be a couple of weeks since we were here before and the birds were brand new. Ollie found one of them dead under the tree, which made us very sad. We figure they either fell out of the nest or something got at them, perhaps a weasel. 

However, later in the day, we saw the mama bird back on the nest and this is what we found when we went to investigate....

Artwork

The day before San Diego Boy came home, his one and only sister and one of her friends worked for about 3 hours on this banner that graced the front of the garage. 

He loved it.

I was especially partial to the capital letter "A" that mimicked the den. Yeah, DDT's even on the banner.

This is the Good Stuff

It just is.

 

 

 

Today is the Day!

A little later today San Diego Boy will no longer formally be truly San Diego Boy. He'll be Home-from-San Diego Boy. He will fly into our very small local airport and I will be able to get my hands on him....make sure he's been treated well. It's been 2 years and 4 days since I have seen his face in real life and I am all ready. I've got the cookies made, the homemade bread made. I can't think of another thing that needs to be done....except for him to get here.

1 More Day!

This is the 17 year old kid. We will be working on the "Welcome Home" banner that will festoon the front of the house. And yes, "slow passage of time" has taken on a whole new meaning. It's that whole "a watched pot never boils" thing. I need to find something else to do to distract me.

2 More Days!

Is is just me or has time just slowed down to a crawl??

 

SD Boy at 16.

The Countdown is ON!

OK....so you're just going to have to give me this luxury. There are only a very few day left until San Diego Boy comes home from his 2 year church mission. This is a big deal for LDS families and so I'm just going to have to count them down. In three days, this boy will be stepping off a plane right here in my town. I am excited beyond words. I pulled up some photos of the boy from several birthdays past just to keep things first and foremost. Here he is with College Boy turning 15....the same age The Girl is now, holy cow.