I never heard of this happening before:
This morning, I looked out my bedroom window, toward the yard door from the garage. A shrike was pecking at something small and round, laying on the cement "porch", like a fat little mouse. It stirred and rolled over, and the shrike flew about, landed several feet away, then fluttered back and pecked the little creature again. Gradually, the big one pestered the small one until the small one stood up and was obviously a baby shrike. Then, suddenly, the adult used its beek to grab the fledgling by the base of its beek and flew away with it to the other side of the yard!
I've been watching for pelicans at the lake where I saw so many last year, and finally, today I saw two on the water. A bit more exciting was the heron I saw flying as we approached the lake. I can't say it was blue, but it certainly was dark against the sky.
By the way, in case you are wondering why I have been writing in this blog so seldom lately, it is because I spend most of the time in the house taking care of my mother, who is losing more to Alzheimer's and can't be alone longer than about 5 minutes. This makes it hard to spend any time with nature, outside. Luckily, nature comes in to visit, in the form of countless spiders, beetles, moths, mice, etc... Even more lucky is the fact that mosquitoes do not find the way in! This photo is of me and Mom, in the spring of '07-- as you might know from elsewhere on this site, I'm Laina, on the left. FYI, Mom is Marilyn Chase, age 81 now.
In the last several weeks, three bull snakes have been spotted: the first was more than 5 feet long, the second, only about 18 inches, and the last, around 3 feet long. I love seeing them, because I have noticed a great abundance of field mice, and the hawks apparently can't keep up with the supply.
