July 20

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Do you remember, back in April, I showed you a pic of a mourning dove on the abandoned robin nest on our garage? 

That dove (or the pair -- I can't tell them apart, and didn't notice them trading places very often) -- sat on that nest for a while.  And then didn't.  I assumed a crow had eaten the egg(s).

Weeks later, the doves were back, and they sat on the nest for another long-ish while.  And then didn't.

Several weeks ago, they showed up again.  And sat.  And sat.  And sat.  And the bird on the nest seemed to get higher and higher, as though she? were sitting on either a couple of dozen eggs, or some offspring.

I finally got out the ladder to investigate.

It's a good thing there's only one!  Even two would be awfully crowded in this nest built to accommodate growing robins!  (Mourning doves are substantially bigger than robins.)  This nest successfully fledged three robins, twice, and two, another time.

The robin parents were busy all day, taking turns bringing food to the babies.  The mourning dove parents were much less likely to leave the egg unattended, this time.  They sat, rather than disappearing for lengthy periods as they had the previous two times they sat here.  But they didn't seem to be very active about feeding the baby.  I only saw them feeding it a couple of times.  But it is big -- they must have fed it.



Wishing it well!  And wishing I had my FENCE.  Fences don't absolutely exclude cats, but they make it less likely there will be cats in the yard.  I really need to tell that neighbor to either put the fence back, or we will.....  Sigh.  I am not fond of being told things will happen, which do not, actually, happen.



Daylily season is nearing its end.  Still enjoying my red-velvet one.

Walking downtown to have lunch with K.  They are still working on Huron.  It is still just one lane with traffic on it, which makes Huron a lot easier for a pedestrian to cross than when it is two lanes each way!

Looking east, from the south side of Huron. 

Another beautiful day!  I kept stopping to stare at the sky..........

And you know I didn't totally ignore the flowers, even though I got started a few minutes later than I meant to start.

I enjoyed lunch, as always.  K. has been doing a lot of traveling, so I got to hear about where they went and what they did.  I like vicarious traveling!  It was good to get together.



Walking home, through West Park.  Looking north.

Standing on the boardwalk/bridge over the pond, looking west.

A little farther along,still  looking west.  See the flowers at bottom right?

This is a closer look at those flowers at bottom right, above.  There are at least three different kinds of yellow flowers with dark centers.  Two tall ones, one with petals that go straight out, and one with petals that hang down, and one short one, with petals that go straight out.

Looking east.  These clouds remind me of the rump of a dapple gray horse.

Looking west.

More yellow flowers, with white queen Anne's lace, and lavender monarda.

I think this next flower was on one of the shorter kinds of plant.

Being able to look at these pics on "the big screen" is teaching me that a lot of things I think of as "a flower" are really aggregations of flowers, with big showy petal-looking things to attract insects to the group of actual (tiny) flowers.   I believe that's what is going on here -- I think the tiny star-shaped things are the actual flowers.

Monarda.  I'm thinking this, too, is an aggregation of tiny flowers.  Only instead of a ring of "petals" around the outside of the group of actual flowers, I think every "petal" here is a complete flower.

Just for you Sara -- each one has its own set of naughty bits.

Each little bitty flower is growing out of a green tube-shaped structure, with a pink rim and dark fuchsia spikes.  We could see these structures in the "after" pic of the monarda against the white picket fence that we looked at a few days ago.

Leaving the park.  Snapdragons in that nice garden on 7th.

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