California Quail

I went out to get the newspaper off my deck this morning and noticed the sun on the irises that had just begun to bloom.

A friend brought some of these purple ones to work one day and they filled the whole room with the scent of Grape bubblegum.  He was kind enough to share some with me.

The pink/yellow ones were left on the side of the road by someone who redid their yard and so I rescued them.

While I was outside a male California Quail (whom I suspect is nesting in my hedge) flew up on the deck.  I snapped this picture of him as he warned his mate.  He called to her and she flew off the roof and they hid until I left.  I'm not sure what that is flying past behind her.  I didn't see any other quail but we do have a little Kestrel watching the bird feeder. 


I was glad to catch a picture of these quail as I had just done up some new paintings of them.

California Quail Postage Stamp by countrymousestudio

Red Tailed Hawks

 

Two years ago, in the tree across the road from our house, I spotted a pair of  Red Tailed Hawks  building their nest.  They hatched two young ones and once they were flying, we never saw them up close again. The following year a Great Horned Owl took it over and then the wind blew it down.

I was sure I'd never see them again but then on the way to work one day, I noticed a group of blackbirds guarding a nest site in an old tree and sure enough, within a few weeks, I saw the hawks.

Over a week or so I watched the couple build the nest, and then for days, all I could see was her head, as she patiently sat in the nest.

A few days ago, when I looked, the nest appeared to be abandoned.     From past experience, I've learned that the babies go from being newly hatched to flying very quickly and then the nest is abandoned but this seemed much too quick.  

I made a special point to go by the nest at every chance and finally I saw the female.  She was sitting a few trees away, just watching and probably listening.  I'm sure she was glad to get away for a while.  The next day, several heads could be seen bobbing up and down so it's safe to assume that she has at least two. 

I hope I am able to catch them teaching the young to fly again.  It's amazing to watch the parents circle and dive while calling out to their reluctant young one.  Sometimes, it takes hours to convince them to leave their safe nest.  After enough coaxing, they'll then step out onto the branch and balance there for a few more hours.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not good at taking photos of wildlife, so these paintings will have to do.

I need to inspire myself

Here is the cold, gloomy day that greeted me this morning.   Hopefully you can see the snow on the hilltops.  The wind is very chilly and I can't even inspire myself to dig my garden.

I can't seem to inspire myself to even do a painting even though I've seen some beautiful birds and animals on the blogs I follow.

So instead of doing something useful, I went into the garden with my camera.

Then I found this little Forget-me-not. 
Every year one of the local real estate agents, drop off a package of these seeds with his name and phone number to advertise his business and I unfortunately planted some.

In this climate, the Forget-me-not is a perfect name for them, since you can't get rid of them, they just spread and spread  

Similar to my raspberries, which were very tasty last summer but I was not careful in keeping them controlled and now they've taken over my whole garden.    Well, I know it's spring and the weather is usually uncertain but I hope all of us get some sun this week.