Depending on the interest of our local bird population I hope to be able to follow the development of these tiny wild cherries and show you how they grow. They are very edible. Once upon a time I was famous for my wild cherry jelly.
Low tide sneaks up on the little fish that normally enjoy our pond, leaving them suddenly trapped and easy prey for the hungry herring gulls who descend like a snowstorm.
This yellow jacket is enjoying frog ribs.
Insects take care of road kill vultures miss.
I was startled to discover a pink grasshopper in my yard.
I often see gold ones with wonderfully striped hind legs.
They are also often green. In case you were wondering, this one is dining on poop from a raccoon who had been dining on persimmons.
Red Eye (osprey chick) begs Pepper Dotty (mom) for fish. Pepper says what all mother osprey say to their chicks, “Go fish!”
Pepper continues to eat, ignoring her starving, miserable chick.
Red Eye continues to complain. Pepper ‘hoods’ her fish. Dart (dad) flies to nest off camera.
Red Eye flies to nest but Dart is already gone and there was no fish left in the nest. Help!!
Suddenly Pepper drops to the nest to deliver fish remains to her chick and Red Eye starts eating immediately.
Happy Red Eye will survive another day! Thanks, Mom!
Once hidden in an apple tree, a lovely nest of 4 mockingbird chicks grows louder every day, drawing attention from endless predators. At this stage the chicks are mostly mouth! Mom and dad are constantly busy feeding and defending their gang. We barely survived their attacks as we took a quick photo yesterday afternoon.
Here they are this morning, twice as big as yesterday. Look carefully for 4 heads. My husband is taking these photos because he is taller.
Yesterday this lovely mayfly selected our kitchen door for a special event…
A perfect molting location! This morning the mayfly was gone! Just like a soft shell crab, it had left it’s outgrown shell behind! …unless some locals from around Lake Victoria found it before it flew away and made it part of a favorite protein-rich patty called ‘Kungu’… I love soft shell crabs so maybe…?
