Out on the patio at the home of our friend Kris a couple of weeks ago, fellow Master Naturalists and I enjoyed watching busy Bewick’s Wren parents caring for their young. The experience was too delightful not to share.
Mama and Papa Bewick’s Wrens, cavity nesters, chose to build their nest in a birdhouse by Kris’ patio this spring. Of course, last year they nested in the pocket of khaki shorts that had been hung out on a laundry line to dry. I guess they decided stability from the wind might be a better bet this time.
Mama and Papa took turns bringing food to their babies. Wrens bring caterpillars and other insects to their young, though sometimes small lizards or frogs might be on the menu. As adults, they will also occasionally consume plant foods, such as seeds, but they really are primarily insectivores.
Inside the birdhouse, the little babies vocalized their hunger to their parents. Between parental visits, I did try to take a quick peek inside the nest box, but it was too dark for me to see the babies very well. We believe there were four in there, however.
The attentive wren parents also kept a tidy house. Above, one parent can be seen removing a fecal sac. Many baby birds release their poop in a strong mucous membrane, or fecal sac, allowing parent birds to easily pick the membrane up in their bill and remove it from the nest.
The wren parents always kept a careful eye on the nearby humans, but when they saw we were not a threat, they visited the nest box with regularity.
That is, until one woman lingered too long near the nest box, and the returning parent bird in frustration swallowed the insect it was carrying and proceeded to chee-chee-chee-chee angrily at the woman until she left the nest area.
Here at home, our wrens change their nest location every year. They briefly considered the shed again, but it seems their final choice was elsewhere. But they still collect food from the garden smorgasbord, so they are around somewhere!
This beautiful male House Finch stood guard for several minutes watching over his mate while she feasted on seeds in a feeder. He’d cock his head this way and that, looking around constantly. He never took time to preen or anything else, though he did sing a little bit (causing me to coo back at him). I was most impressed with how seriously he held watch, and his mate only felt cause to react when the paranoid White-winged Doves on the front side of the fence suddenly flew up en masse — but seeing no concern from her mate, she went right back to eating.
Here the female House Finch just sits inside the milk jug bird feeder, devouring black oil sunflower seeds. We’ve been having fun with kid projects. This is a simple version of a milk jug feeder, decorated only with stickers (held in place with non-toxic outdoor glue) — we have some fancier ones that are going to go out in the garden tomorrow, once the glue dries. On Friday, we’re having a bunch of kids over to make some for their own backyards. Fun!
Its softness isn’t just alluring to the touch — the velvety hairs and light blue-green color catch the light so subtly that the leaves almost beckon you to reach out with your fingertips. In fact, it can be so distracting that you almost have to refocus your eyes, as if viewing a stereogram, to look beyond the leaves to see what might actually be munching on them.
Other times, I found them along leaf edges, almost blending in with the light margins of the leaves.
…the owlets start to stir. This year Athena has two owlets. I snapped pictures while I was at the Wildflower Center plant sale last weekend, and while I could see both owlets, only one was photo-accessible.
One time while I visited her, something in the sky caught mama’s attention, and I saw her go on guard. When she suddenly ducked into the house, I looked to see what alarmed her. The shadow flying overhead turned out to be a black vulture, but mama Screech Owl was not taking any chances.
Bluebonnets are part of the legume, or bean, family. Like most other members of the legume family, they offer nitrogen-fixation through their root system’s symbiotic relationship with Rhizobia bacteria, giving them the excellent ability of being able to grow in poor, disturbed soils and at the same time bringing nitrogen back to that poor soil when they decompose.
Any given bluebonnet is likely to show both fresh florets and aging florets. Even though a magenta banner spot indicates that a floret’s pollen has lost its viability, the floret may, of course, produce seeds if it was pollinated while it was fresh.
Because bluebonnets cannot self-fertilize, the decline in bee populations has a direct effect on how many seeds a bluebonnet can produce. One plant has the potential to produce many hundreds of seeds, but often only a small number typically result, simply due to the decrease in pollinator numbers. Please protect our pollinators and our wildflowers by not using pesticides!
Lee F. of 
As near as I can tell, this inchworm is one of just a few species that have filaments — in the United States, there are primarily three recognized species. Ours appears to be Nematocampa resistaria, or 
The length of the pale-tipped filaments on our little inchworm indicate that it was actually a little concerned by our presence (not that we were the ones invading its space this time, mind you — it was the other way around!). When relaxed, the inchworm’s filaments aren’t quite as long. When alarmed, it pumps hemolymph into them, which extends them — like spider legs, oooOOOoooh.
Remember, these little guys and other caterpillars have an important role in the ecosystem as food sources for birds and other animals — don’t squish them!
American Smoke Tree
