A Spring Classic

Robins eating worms is a classic image in the spring.  Truth be told, in this area they don't migrate and they have been here all winter, but I know in a lot of places, people look for robins as one of the first signs of spring.  There are robins on our lawn almost any time you look out there.  One of the reasons I don't fertilize is for the health of the soil.  I don't think weed killers and worms mix too well.  The fact that the robins spend hours eating worm after worm indicates to me that I'm doing something right by doing nothing at all.

I included this photo because it illustrates how my lawn is full of a variety of small flowers.  This patch is a flower called Veronica repens which is a beautiful little flower, but doesn't like to stay where planted.  It started out in a garden bed on the other side of the house, but is no longer found there.  But there are patches of it all throughout the lawn.  So what to do - kill them?  Naahhh.  They're usually done blooming by mowing season anyway.

Note the intensity of the robin hunting for worms.  Is he looking for them or listening for them?  That has been an ongoing scientific debate for some time now.  Some believe it is all a matter of eyesight while others believe robins can actually hear the sub-sonic sounds a worm makes as it crawls through the soil.  My money is on this latter theory.  Watch a robin hunting worms and form your own conclusion about which theory is true.

Here is the classic robin photo of one pulling a worm out of it's hole in the ground.  If you have ever tried to pull a worm out of the ground, you know there is an art to it.  Done wrong, you only get a part of the worm.  They seem to know just how much tension to exert.

Here is the same robin tossing one back.  I only spent a few minutes filming this one robin, but in that time, I watched it catch about ten worms.  I cannot imagine how many are in the soil since there are always at least two robins out there doing this all day long.  The male robin's coloring is a little more intense then the female.  All three of these photos are the same male.

Woodpeckers of the World - Unite!

One aspect of nest building implied in yesterday's post needs to be elaborated on a little more.  It is probably something most people would not consider, but plays a crucial role in the success of a nest.  When I said that the red-bellied had spent the best part of three days building the cavity, I left something unsaid. 

Notice how the red is interrupted on the female and reappears

near the bill, unlike the male in the first photo.

One of the keys to the success of humans as opposed to the animal kingdom is the principle of the division of labor.  If we decide to build a house, there is an entire complex system behind us helping us to succeed; men who have cut down the trees, shaped the lumber into boards, shipped them off to hardware stores, trucked them to the building site, and on and on.  That is not to mention so many other aspects, like a wife making lunch for the builder so that he can spend more time building.  All these helpers make the entire task of building a house much less problematic than if the builder had to do all these things himself in order to finish his task.

The red-bellied doesn't have this luxury of a support system.  Expending three days of energy building a nest only to have the female reject it has to have been a blow.  That was three days he couldn't spend foraging for food keeping his energy up.  So, it was a bigger deal than it may have appeared at a cursory glance.  After almost a week, it appears he has abandoned his efforts to build a nest in this tree altogether.

Choosing a Home

This is an update on the progress of the red-bellied woodpecker nest.  The male spent the best part of three days carving out a nest in the right-hand branch of a tree trunk that had been topped a couple of years ago and is now in decay.  The female finally came in to inspect the nest's suitability.  You can tell the female from the male by the red crest.  On the male, the crest goes all the way from the nape of the neck up and over it's head to the base of the bill and is one of the nicest looking reds you would ever want to see.  The same patch on the female is interrupted on the crown of the head by the same gray color as the rest of the head and the red is a little duller appearing.

The male waited patiently while she looked it over and considered whether it would suffice.  The male, in this photo, is waiting on top of the trunk.  They both met on the top of the trunk afterwards to discuss possibilities. 

She must have had some misgivings about the nest, because after she left, he began carving out a second nest at the top of the left-hand branch of the same tree.  Maybe she had the same concerns I did about how close to the "roof" the nest was in the case of rain.  It seemed to me in a prolonged rain, the water would soak through the top all the way into a nest.

In any case, after she left, he began carving out a hole in the other trunk very near the top also.  Except, you can tell it is much more solid wood by the timber of his pecks as he is working.  The sound of his blows on the other nest were more of a "thunk" and the sound of the pecks on this hole are much brighter.  Which also means a lot more work because the wood is harder to carve out.  Over several days since making her decision, he has only been there occasionally and his efforts only seem half-hearted.  Plus, he doesn't stay very long.  Meanwhile, times a wasting. Then there is another problem.  One that would be true no matter where they build their nest.

A while back, I did a post on a squirrel nest.  Well that nest is only a couple of trees away from the woodpeckers nest site.  A couple of turns on side roads and the squirrel is right there on the main highway.  If they do end up nesting here, and if the squirrels keep coming around, it will be interesting to see how the birds handle it.  Do they attack them with their powerful bills, or do they buzz them to try and get them to leave, or do they passively stand by and watch as a squirrel invades their nesting hole?  It would be interesting to watch, but right now the question is, will the nest even get built?

Easter Bunnies

I took more photos of the Easter bunny weeds and wanted to show you a few more.  I love this flower!  They are so... well, expressive.  They just look like they are having fun.  Don't miss the little buttons on the leaves.  And to think, it is nothing more than a weed found on a lawn!

Remember, if you click on a photo, they will all be enlarged.

Spring Flower Show

If you want to see a great flower show, get down and crawl around on some one's lawn who doesn't take real good care of it.  Mine, for instance.  They are usually loaded with little flowers that you are more likely to step on than look at.  And most of them are just lovely when you examine them up close.  Most of these are pushing two inches tall - if they're lucky.

I'm not sure if these are classified as violets or not...

My Shy Violet

Most of you probably won't get the reference to "My Shy Violet," a tune made popular by the Mills Brothers.  Who?  Google it and add "You-tube."  They were before my time too, but you would hear the song once in a while, like you hear a Beatle's tune once in a while today.  Anyhoo...

Violets are ubiquitous on my lawn this time of year.  But I don't mind.  Maybe some people enjoy a monoculture of grass reaching out in all directions, but I enjoy looking down and seeing a little wild garden in blue here and there.  Makes me want to get down and crawl around...

The Colors of Easter II

There is a world of fascinating photographic subjects that is mostly overlooked.  In fact, most people do not even know they exist, even though they are right beneath our feet.  These "weeds" are a case in point.  You may have walked right over them in early spring without even noticing them since they are only about an inch tall.  Once the blooms develop, the flower stems grow to about three to four inches, but they are still so small as to go unnoticed.  I don't even know the name of this "weed."

Easter often occurs in March and that is when they appear, so because of that, and their color, I think of them as an Easter flower.  Plus, it helps that they look like little purple Easter bunnies.  Have you ever seen a more lovely "weed?"  Not only do they have the beautiful flower, but if you look closely at the leaves in the upper part of the plant, you will see a second type of flower which looks like a small velvety crimson button.  I think it might be one of the prettiest flowers I have ever seen and I'll bet not one in a hundred other people have ever seen it.  If they were a foot tall, they would probably sell like hotcakes, but they are reserved for those who take the time to look for them.

To capture these photos, the camera had to be directly on the ground - which brings up another point.  I could have gone out and plucked some of these flowers and arranged them for some photos, which would have been a whole lot easier.  But, I have a personal rule (or goal) to shoot subjects "in situ," i.e., in place just as I found them, and just as I will leave them.  In other words, "leave no trace" of my having been there.  If there happened to be some distracting trash or fallen branches in the frame, that is one thing, but I try not to alter anything when I take photos.