Saturday

I had a yard sale today and I am exhausted. I was up at 6am dragging everything out of the garage and putting them on tables and hanging clothes on a line. But I also got to look at my husband's cactus, which is blooming.

It has went from this. . .

to this. . .

during the course of the day.

I think they are so beautiful! But don't touch, or you will get many, many fine stickies in you! Take it from someone who has learned the hard way.

During the day I checked on our mourning dove nest in the Catawba tree. The two babies have hatched and are very big! I think they will be flying down from the tree very soon. I hope I get to see them when they do. I am going to make it a point to check on them often. The baby doves are very quiet and still, I have never heard them make a noise or even move. They are very well hidden among the large leaves of the tree.




We can't get the CD part of our son's stereo to work, so we never had any luck in selling it. It is a good radio and cassette player, tho, with great speakers. So my older son thought it would make a nice addition to his workshop.

He now listens to music in style,

while he works.

There's a beautiful full moon out tonight, in case you want to take a look at it before going to bed. Hope you are having a nice weekend!

Nest Building 101

I guess I didn't have anything better to do this morning than to watch a robin teach me how to build a bird nest.

I watched through my kitchen window.

She sits on the branches surveying the land.
Her house has to be in a good neighborhood, you know.

She hunts for building materials. As you can see, there are plenty of free building supplies in
our yard. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see a twig in her mouth.

In the building process.

Looking right at me.

Again, click on these to see a larger picture.
Here is the back of her with her tail feathers up,
trying to make an indent in the nest as she goes along.

Pulling up some of the falling structure, getting it just right.
It looks like some of my old Iris leaves.

She'd get on the nest and wiggle her butt and tail feathers around, trying to make it comfy.

Giving the almost completed nest a try.

Looking over the area from her side porch.

The almost finished nest.
A little messy, but it will be her home sweet home.

I wish I had a video of this. It was amazing. She'd go get material, come back and tuck it in her nest, then she'd sit and wiggle around making an indent in the middle. I watched for the longest time. It's hard to get good pictures through the kitchen window, tho.

Again, it will just take a second, if you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you will be able to see the robin much better.

And I have a sad note to add to this post.

I don't know for sure what happened, but I noticed yesterday that the mourning dove wasn't sitting on her nest. We checked it out and found two baby birds on the ground below. They were lifeless, but didn't look like they had been harmed in any way. We had a hard frost that morning, do you think the birds could have frozen and the mother then put them out of her nest? We never bothered the nest, the doves were very diligent and sat on it both night and day. I was so sad, but unfortunately, in nature, things like this happen.

Look At What We Found

Hubby was pruning trees in our yard last night.

He called me on his cell phone.
"Honey, get the camera and come quick.
You'll never guess what I found."

Do you know what kind of bird eggs these are?
Take a guess, before you look further.


I went back down today and took a picture of her on the nest.
She's hiding. Can you see her? Enlarge the picture and you will.
She's on the left.

Here's a close up.

This is the first mourning dove nest I have seen.
I researched them and it said they only have 2 white eggs.
I hope she didn't lay them too soon.
It's still awfully cold here at nights and in the early morning hours.

I'm looking forward to seeing baby mourning doves this Summer!