More baby birds

Making the switch, the dad is in the front.



Momma and her 2! babies. The other egg hatched sometime in the last 24 hours.


Climbing in


Puffing up. I don't know if she puffs up because she is trying to look big for me, or if it is for the babies. I assume she is afraid of me and is trying to look as big as possible.


Settled in for the night.

Baby Bird

I was chatting with my dad on the phone this afternoon and he asked about the birds. So I peeked out the window and there was a tiny wet baby bird sitting with her daddy! Amazing.

When the dad switched off with the mom I took the above video. Hopefully the other egg with hatch soon.

I can now tell the difference between the mom and dad bird. They both sit on and feed the baby. When the dad was feeding he kept trying to tuck the other egg back under his body, it was really cute.

The little baby's eyes are still closed, but his down is all fluffy and full. He flaps his little wings when he is eating, so cute.

This has been a great weekend. We had sushi on Friday. We took the boat to Catalina for the day yesterday and this afternoon we watched Juno.

I'll post the Catalina pics later this week

Twins

Yesterday afternoon I heard the bird make some noise. The same noise they'd make when landing when I had seed in the feeder. So I peeked out the window to see what was up. The bird had gotten up to go somewhere and had just returned. There are 2 little eggs in the nest, so we're going to have twins!

I have done a bit of research and it seems the bird is a Mourning Dove. They were nearly eradicated a few years ago, the spotted Chinese dove had pretty much taken over. The spotted dove is not native to SoCal, the mourning dove is. The spotted doves nest high in the trees, making them an easy target for the crows. The crows ate all the spotted dove eggs and slowly the mourning dove has made its way back. They nest closer to the ground and closer to humans, and the crows are afraid of people so they tend to leave the nest alone.

Traditionally they nest in pairs, but there is only room for one bird in the feeder. I'm assuming it is the same bird sitting all the time, but really they could be switching it up and I just can't tell the difference. According to the link below the boy bird sits in the morning and the girl bird in the evening and night.

Mourning doves tend to have about 3 broods a year and return to the same location to nest year after year!

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Mourning_Dove.html

Birdie

A number of years ago my mom and dad gave me a suction-cup window bird feeder. For a long, long time I'd keep it full of seeds and let the birds entertain Chase-er-meow-meow.

Today, while watching a young hoodlum get arrested in the front yard, I notice that rather than bird feed in the feeder there was a BIRD. A lovely dove has made a nest in the feeder. I have long neglected the bird feeder; the cat is dead and the couch is now in front of the window. And I ran out of bird seed ages ago.

It is clear that the bird has eggs in its nest. It sat not moving at all the entire time the guy was being arrested (he was actually not arrested, it was the neighborhood "security ambassadors" who stopped him and gave him a "warning" for 30+ minutes.) She did sit up to rearrange herself and there are some little eggs gestating under the warmth of her belly.

Matt and I discussed her potential names. He'd like to use our future cats name Sir Cattington of Mousingham, but I vetoed and went with Birdie. Ok, so not really a veto, I'm not that cool, he relented.

So Birdie will have baby birds and I will take pictures and share them with you.



Unfortunately the feeder is dirty from age and the winter rains. So no clear pictures though the window.


Chase-er-meow-meow loved the feeder, especially when the Squirrel came to visit.

Summer Concert Series

I love to go see shows at the various outdoor venues in the LA area.

This year we are seeing Beck, Spoon and Mgmt all at one show. I'm super excited for all 3! They are at the Hollywood Bowl towards the end of September.

But it is Death Cab for Cutie that is the show at the top of my list! I bought the new album, Narrow Stairs today. It is so much better than anything they've done in the past. I cannot wait.

Sadly the stupid ticket pimps got all the freaking Radiohead tickets. Assholes. I hate them. Seriously minutes after the pre-sale pre-sale there were 100s of tickets being sold by the brokers available for 9x the face value. I'm just not willing to spend $300 to see them, not worth it.

We will however probably go for a nice drive along the canyon roads surrounding the Bowl to listen to the sounds wafting up to our ears. I am tempted to go and buy a ticket from a scalper, but the last time I witnessed that the tickets were fakes. Man was that guy pissed off. He nearly beat up the guy who had the real tickets for the same seats.


Playboy Jazz festival and at least one or two shows at the Greek are also on the roster.

weekend fun

This morning we went to the Bob Dylan exhibit at the Skirball Center. It was pretty awesome with all sorts of bits and pieces from the first 10 years of his musical career.

Then we went to have lunch. Indian buffet. Yum! I'm not a huge fan of buffet but this one was really good.

This afternoon I turned all my Lush shower jellies into salt scrubs. I have a potent Whoosh heave salt scrub and a Joy of Jelly soft salt scrub. I used the immersion blender on the JOJ so is would be smoother. I can't wait to try them out tomorrow.

Shortly we're going to go over to the carnival. It is a crappy little carnival with an even crappier selection of food. They set it up for the weekend at the park and we rarely miss it.

Friday

This has been a long week. My co-worker and I discussed Wednesday that it felt like the third Monday in a row.

I made reservations at CUT to celebrate our birthdays. I'm super excited they say it is the best steak in town. And Wolfgang Puck actually cooks there! Hopefully someone famous, that I can recognize, will be dining at the table next to us. I'm also excited to ask the waiter all sorts of questions about the Nebraska beef.

I'm really loving this season of Survivor. It was so good yesterday. The girls are wickedly manipulative and those boys fall for it every time. I'm not sure if James would have fallen into their trap, so maybe it is good he left for medical reasons. Those boys will never trust another woman.

LOST was also fantastic last night. So many twists and turns. And WTF is up with Jack/Claire's dad? I'm eager to watch again with Matt this weekend. He came home for the last 5 minutes.

36

I'm 36 today.

I woke up and had a nice happy birthday text from my dad.

At work my co-worker brought me my favorite bagel and a side of cream cheese. There was also a fun birthday mylar balloon. Then my boss brought me two cupcakes! Later in the morning, when my other co-worker arrived I got card signed by all my work friends and a pink and white rose plant to keep in my cube.

Matt also called me from the Stagecoach Festival to give me birthday wishes. This is the first birthday in 11 years that we've been apart. Of course this day is extra special to me because this is the day he asked me to be his wife.

In the evening time I went over to my friend Michelle's and we went together to see another friend's one woman show. It was great fun and Shelby did a great job writing the show and and even better job performing. It was super fun and we all laughed a bunch. Kudos to Shelby!

After Single Girl's Biceps Michelle and I went out for Indian food. It was super delicious and we had a nice time chatting and enjoying the nighttime air on the patio.

Now I'm home, Emma is walked and I'm almost ready to go to bed.

36 will be a good year. I like number combos that are divisible.