28 April 2013 - Another bird and a busy weekend

We hit 70 both yesterday and today. What does that mean?  Yard work. Last year we finished putting up a fence between us and the neighbors.  Yesterday I finally got the stain on it. Wonder if there is such a thing as painter's elbow. My arms are sore! There are three more 8 foot panels off screen to the right. Last year I painted the back side of the fence a gray that matched the neighbor's house, which made them very happy, but I finally figured out I wanted a brighter color.

 It was a big spring clean-up weekend. In addition to painting: washed windows, mowed lawns, got the sprinklers turned on, blew and swept the driveway, dug dandelions out of the lawn,  just work work work. I painted the metal drip edge over the brick in the front of the house. I'm quite happy with the result.  Here are a before and after. 

Of course none of these things were on our copious to do list. But priorities and the energy to do them change. 

Yesterday afternoon I was standing in the back yard admiring the fence when I heard a hummingbird zip by. I ran downstairs, grabbed an armload of feeders, cleaned them up, filled them and hung them on three sides of the house. Today I caught the hummer using the feeder in front of the kitchen window.  Most gratifying. It is a little early for them to be coming back, so hopefully they will find a source of food here and stick around. Last summer we had three kinds of hummingbirds and were using four pounds of sugar a week during the peak after the babies were hatched. 

Bird irony. This morning I was sitting on the kitchen counter, drinking coffee and looking out the window.  Here I have been going out looking for birds, and this little jewel came to me. Luckily the camera was handy.  This is a Lazuli Bunting. What a treat to see him so close!

Then later in the afternoon there was a red squirrel on the balcony chipping up a storm. When he didn't stop, I went out to see what the problem was.  Oh. Nothing like having someone considering you for supper. 

This is one of the pair of sharp-shinned hawks that considers my yard its own personal grocery store. I am pretty sure they are nesting in the pine tree next door.  Speaking of groceries, I found the head of a rabbit in my front yard today. Most likely a remnant of a meal. I'd much rather they would catch the squirrels. 

 




The flowering trees are finally blooming up here: plums, pears and lots of ornamentals. A couple days in the 70s and the world changes. On Tuesday the forecast says cold and a hard freeze. Couldn't it have done this earlier?