Observations - May 31st

It has been very warm here the last few days. Not just hot, but what I call bird-pant hot -- the kind of heat that makes birds stand around miserably with their beaks open, throats fluttering, in an effort to cool off. Of course the lawn has been growing vigorously, and we were having people over for dinner, and so I ended up mowing on one of those hot days. I still have difficulties timing my weather-sensitive activies, it seems, especially when I also need to coordinate them with work or social events. Living one's life in a fairly temperate climate will do that to a person, I guess.

In addition to panting, the birds have been greatly amusing me of late. Particularly hilarious are the antics of our neighborhood flock of starlings. At this point, the flock contains a large number of adolescent birds, still brownish and gawky. They are capable of flying and feeding themselves, but are competent at neither one. When the flock's at the feeder, the younger birds alternate between eating and following the adult birds around, beaks gaping, making horrible raspy "feed me!" noises. (It's such a loud, distinctive, and incessant noise that I can easily track the flock around the yard just by ear.) Sometimes the adults oblige, mostly to shut the whining juveniles up for a moment, but more frequently what happens is that some poor older bird finds itself being trailed by begging birds until it finally gets fed up and flies away. I once saw one bird being mobbed in this fashion by four young birds, all of them chasing back and forth on the road, before the adult flew off. Then, the second hilarious dynamic manifests: the moment when the younger birds follow, flapping awkwardly, and end up running into the older birds and knocking them off their perches! It's clear that the adult birds are heartily sick of the juveniles, but they have no recourse but to endure -- and to flap away whenever they can.

Another set of amusing (to me, anyway) younglings are the squirrels. Most entertaining is the bold young thing that likes to stretch out on the front porch railing, completely flat, with its feet hanging over the sides. It doesn't strike me as a wise thing to do for a prey animal, but it is quite adorable.

The warmth has brought out the insects in force; this morning I found myself picking strange brown leafhoppers off the undersides of the sunflower plants (which are growing at an insanely quick rate). The ants have woken up, and are crusing all over the sunflowers, and, in the case of the big black ones, through the house. There are flies and beetles sneaking into the house these days too -- and after a winter free from them, my swatting and capturing skills have attenuated.

On the positive side, last night D. and I saw the first firefly of the season. (I'd been wondering when they would reappear.)

My crop plants are growing well; there are some good-looking squash and melons, some crazy-fast growing beans, a now-useable lettuce bed, and there are some snow peas on the pea plants that are almost ready to eat. The carrot seeds are sprouting, the basils and mints are growing, and the tomatoes are putting out flowers. It's amazing to me how much the pace picked up once the weather warmed up.

The trees, meanwhile, are coming down from their earlier flowering. The strangest flowers were those of the tulip tree: they are these huge green-petalled things, with a smear of orange at the base of each petal, and huge rings of stamens inside. And these are growing on trees -- which looks very odd to the eyes of this Western girl.

(One thing I am disliking greatly about the heat is the way it seems to be irritating my iritis-weakened eye. It's been achy all this last week, and I can link it pretty directly to the change in the heat and humidity levels. It's bizarre, and more than a little annoying.

Comments

[KathyR]

My squirrels do that, too. I wonder if they have squirrel solar panels installed in there, storing up warmth & energy for later...