Memo to self: close screens

Out at our chacra (mini-farm), now happily no longer ours, I discovered an unusual contribution to my working mess: twigs in the sink…

…which had fallen from the light fixture I had built above.

And there were more in the refrigerator.

It seems to have been an avian case study into where not to build a nest. I was glad for that. And I closed the screen on the kitchen window. No idea why it was left open — painting, maybe — but previously I had startled a cat that made a hasty exit through the opened screen. Ya’d think a felluh would learn….

A trip to where?

What made this trail? And why did it stop? And where did it go?

And what form of propulsion?

Makes a lizard look absolutely sloppy in comparison.

Wait … what?

Avocados are long gone. Buds emerging for the next crop.

So what do I find this morning but a freshly-fallen avocado, freshly devoured. Huh?

I didn’t get a picture of the bird, but when I first saw this, it was calmly eating, that far away, glancing up at me from time to time, as if wondering—as usual—who exactly I thought I was hanging around its feeding station.

Swallows!

I’m not sure I have ever experienced this before: the mesmerizing aerial dance of swallows feeding (presumably on mosquitoes—yesss!).

Not in this clip, but an hornero bird returned to its nest atop the power pole with a single screech, entirely atypical because their normal call is long and loud. It was as though it found the air traffic overwhelming, and I would have to agree. A moment later, it moved lower onto the wire, and when a swallow tried to land on the wire near it…well, it was not happy about that.

No-track spider

We’ve seen plenty of tarantulas on our dog walks, and I’ve taken plenty of photos and video, but I’ve never noticed one walking across sand – and leaving no track! At least none that I would have found convincing.

The early bird?

OK, not my best videography (ya think?). That’s a bird finishing eating a worm, bit by bit, in the middle of an intersection, oblivious to our two dogs nearby. I have never watched a bird eating a worm in the open. I always imagined they just swallowed them whole, rather than pulling them to pieces. And why in the middle of the road? I just stared, until it occurred to me to record it, which is why you don’t see the juicy bits earlier.

Next time 😉

Decent sized lizard, that

Seriously large claw marks. That’s a size 13 shoe for comparison. We haven’t seen a live lizard longer than two inches long in a very long time. There was that one once, though….

Love birds

We’ve had a couple pigeons hanging around for several years now. The pair I saw the most in the past were gray and white. This year they’re both white. They nested on an air conditioning unit upstairs. I saw one eggshell and once the two of them with another, full grown, black and white. Much more interesting than just gray.

As you’ll no doubt agree. Here’s what two two gray pigeons look like.

It’s fun to watch the birds…

…eating the remains of the last few paltas (avocados) at such close range.

But there is that other thing.

Little blue egg

Found on the dog walk among pine trees. Though we have robins (zorzal colorado) at home, we have never seen one out here. What other type of bird lays blue eggs?