The Return of Yard Eco

The first nesting of brown thrashers fledged this week, and thus we have had ungainly juvenile birds with fuzz still clinging to them crash landing around the yard. We lost one Sunday -- while I was busy discouraging our retriever mutt Bud from trying to knock them out of the shrubbery with my best malocchio, our latest rescue, a terrier/boxer sort of mix, nailed one that landed in front of her. We noticed at least two more, and have managed to keep the dogs off them. We got a good look at one when it settled on a privet bush for a rest. Baby tried to get a pic of it, but the parents ran her off and then executed one of those parental bird shrub-to-shrub maneuvers and got it out of sight.

The hummers arrived today, and of course I wasn't ready for them. The finch tube I have up in the backyard has a bright red cap, and the hummers, knowing to expect a nectar feeder in the area, were taken in by it. On realizing that there was nothing but seed in the feeder, they looked about as nonplussed as hummingbirds can and flew off. I quickly got a small tube of sugar water out and they noticed it, but didn't drink -- the water was still kinda hot at the time. Then off they went to try to figure out the finch feeder again--I'm going to have to cover the darn thing lest it drive them to distraction.

The cardinal pair in the backyard brought a juvenile to the feeder this morning.

Garden report: The faux Vidalia onions are growing very nicely. I pulled one green last week to cook with -- boy, are they strong at this size!