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.

Finally some pictures of wildlife!

After dropping off my daughter this afternoon, I took a side road to a park that I pass by almost daily. I've been wanting to collect a handful of the Balsam Flowers that fill the hills every spring.  They are basically weeds but so beautiful.  As you can see it's still gloomy and a little windy.

 




                                                            
All those yellow patches are clumps of Balsam, they have spread over all free land and unfortunately are taking over good grazing areas.

But the best part of the whole trip was the Meadowlark I heard, then managed to capture a picture of.  

    And at the end of the road as I was about to turn around, there was a little Marmot sitting and staring at me.  He didn't even move when I snapped his picture.   I still can scarcely believe that I actually had a working camera when wildlife appeared.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Rain all week

Photo by Nicole (Barkett)Platz


It's a desert here and they are talking of water restrictions already, (no pools and no hot tubs) allowed this year.  We have clouds but never get more than a few sprinkles lately.  It's been dry for 3 years or so and we received almost no snow this winter so reservoirs are low.

I was fortunate enough to get a day off today and planned on working in my garden but we had just enough rain to  make me change my mind.

I tried a Tom Sawyer trick this week.  My garden needed digging and I had too many raspberry plants.  They were taking over the whole garden so I advertised on a Freecycle page that I had raspberry plants to give away.  Someone came yesterday and took about 1/3 of them so now that much of my garden is done.  She even raked it afterward.  By the time I've given them away, the garden will be dug up.

Then I just have to figure out how to grow a garden with no water.  I am going to put down drip hoses and lots of mulch between the rows, that is, if I get another day off soon.  At least, the lawn won't need such frequent mowing and that's a good thing as I hate mowing the lawn.

I showed my son the pictures his sister had taken this morning and he said, "Just a minute."


 Then he put it in Photoshop and flipped it.

Look at the bottom one, it is so still, that you can't tell the difference.





Photo by Nicole (Barkett)Platz

The Marmots are awake!

During the day, I work at a self storage place, which covers 7 acres.  Although, most of it is buildings and asphalt, wildlife still finds a way to fit in.  One of my favorite visitors is the Yellow Bellied Marmot.

They like to sit in the shade which the buildings provide and they eat the weeds growing between and around them and the rocks.
Last week when I did my usual checking on the property, I discovered that they had woken up from their hibernation.  They are very curious and will pop out to see what's going on then they disappear just as quickly.

I found this picture on Wikipedia and absolutely love the way they sit on their bums.   As I've said before I don't have any luck photographing wildlife so all I have is a painting of them.

Marmot mug by countrymousestudio

This little Marmot on the Mug  has travelled all the way to http://www.squidoo.com/the_best_of_zazzle_weekly which is created by fellow Zazzle Artist  so stop by and view her beautiful creations here: