Odds and Ends

Even though so many of my flowers were destroyed by the hail storms of 4/27/2011 I do still have a few visiting butterflies. I also got a quick glance of the Clearwing Moth (so commonly called Hummingbird Moth, although there are 2 different Clearwing Moths)

The most unusual place I have ever seen a bird lay it's egg.
Guess it was because of the color on the right of way post.
No, I do not know what happened, because I forgot about it for a few days.
When I went back to check there was no sign of it.

Song Sparrow bird nest in the neighbor's garden

The neighbor was in his garden when he came across this nest with eggs in his tomato plants. Same type eggs that were in his shed. Never did get to see those babies, for lack of access, due to a trailer blocking the path.
Hate to say it, but she did not do a great job of building the nest, but she only had tomato plants as a base. It kept falling over. There were only 3 left last time we saw babies in it there.

Then the nest was empty but the birds were still having a fit so the babies are probably wondering around under all the thickness of his garden. He has already found one he must have stepped on. We don't know if the other 3 are still in good shape and are being fed while on the ground or not.

Bird Eggs

This nest and eggs were in the neighbors carport about a month ago. Never could get close while the babies were there, and never saw a bird sitting. Thought the eggs were pretty. Then Tuesday morning the neighbor said he wanted to show me something in his tomato plants. It was the nest and eggs below. Apparently the same type bird, still haven't seen the bird. Sorry about the quality of the photo, but I only had my 75mm-300mm lens with me at the time, and could not get far enough away to get the shot I wanted. I will return with my standard lens, even if I have to wander through his garden without him. Another one I do not know how to identify. The more we learn, the more questions we have.

Killdeer

This Killdeer was in our backyard, and did a great job of acting like it's wing is broken.
I watch the eggs for the whole 28 days, as closely as they would let me.

I go out there yesterday, and gone....again.

I have been through this process 4 times now. I can't ever get a photo of the babies, because I never see them. So here I go with my research AGAIN. And one of my books says they are precocial. Which they say means "A pattern of development in which young birds hatch with feathers and are able to move and feed themselves." I guess to get to see the babies I am going to have to camp out there, but I am afraid the adult will attack me if I do that. Hope you liked this educational information.