A female River Jewelwing damselfly! and a bug! :)
Aw! The Bluebird babies from the nesting boxes at the garden have fledged! Just two kids, this year.
Here's Papa with some food. You gotta be on the top rung, kid!
There you go!
Dang they are CUTE!
So. I arrive at the garden. And there's this mess at the front, on the Evil Neighbor's side. What the hell?
The jerk has finally shown up, and weeded his front raised beds... and threw some of the weeds in my plot and didn't clean them up! GAH!
Just one of the reasons why he's the Evil Neighbor, ya know?!
But wait... haha, look what was under some of the weeds...
That's a dried up and pathetic looking Strawberry plant. It might be too far gone, but heck, I'm going to add it to my own little strawberry patch and see what happens.
He's still a jerk, tho!
So, here's what I actually wanted to do today... The big Comfrey plant is starting to sprawl all over the poor little Sweet Potatoes.
So we give it a little trim. Wow, look at how much tidier it looks.
And never mind how little those two Sweet Potato plants are. Yeah, I transplanted them a month ago, and they've not grown at all since then. Stupid garden. But at least they are still alive.
I'm letting this last volunteer Elephant Garlic bloom... I had eaten the other ones as scapes! Yum!
Sighs, poor munched Spaghetti Squash.
Pretty weeds.
A lovely, dreary day!
Still water coming into the ponds!
Artsy!
Our sweet Muscovy friend is hanging out with the Mallards at Ducky Tree today.
um. hmm. This tomato plant was Supposed to be a big, slicer called Celebrity. But these look like Roma tomatoes! I wonder if I got them mixed up when I planted them?! ha.
Potatoes! They are so cute! They make me happy!
Papa Bluebird...
And Mama Bluebird!
Well. The 4th of July is Independence Day, here in the USA.
Unfortunately, women and others here have lost the federal right to bodily autonomy when SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade, ten days ago.
We are no longer independent. We can no longer make decisions for ourselves about our health care. The state now has the right to control people's uteruses.
Mama Doctor Jones has a brilliant video on this...
∞ Mama Doctor Jones:
Doctor Discusses Abortion & Roe Vs. Wade Overturn
Just 29 seconds, watch it!
(the longer and more involved video was made on May 16,
after the SCOTUS leak. It's over 28 minutes long...
Mama Doctor Jones:
Doctor Explains Roe vs Wade... What Overturning Means for Health & Autonomy in Pregnancy )
I am headed out to Stewart Pond to look at the Robin's nest again.
But first... for historical purposes!
Here we are! I just love the colours of the prairie!
And here's the Robin nest... two beaks and a lump! Yay!
I scoot around, thinking I could get a better view over here. gah. Stupid stick. Stupid leaves! *laughs*
Hard to tell, but the above is actually four babies... the two beaks on either side of the stick are two individuals!
Oh No! Here's one of the parents, and they are MAD at me! Dang it, that glare down at me is like poison! I wish I hadn't gotten on their bad side!
But I stick around to see a bit more.
Annnnd... This is what she thinks of me! (That's a poo sack she's holding. She'll take away from the nest to keep it tidy.)
Okay, okay! I get the message! I'm moving on!
And a little piggy cuteness... Here's Dawn the Guinea Pig!
Going out to Stewart Pond again to look at the baby Robins!
So artsy! This is a female River Jewelwing damselfly.
A Pacific Clubtail dragonfly, warming up on the bike path.
Oh, hey! Another River Jewlwing! This is the male.
Here we are at the Ponds.
oh Crud! They are mowing... The Robin's nest is in a tree right on the edge of the little forest, and beyond it is a field where there's several Frisbee Golf target baskets. (It's also mowed to control weeds like English Ivy and Himalayan Blackberries!)
But they are mowing so close, and it's so loud! Everyone is hunkering down in the nest, and no sign of either parent.
Well. That's disappointing that I didn't get to see the babies today. But I go round the corner, and oh hey!
There's a handful of Chickadees, bouncing around in the Poison Hemlocks. Maybe they are eating bugs on the flowers?
They are so cute. I wish I could catch them more often, but they usually bounce around too quickly for the camera.
Oh my gosh, the new BWD Mag arrived today and I am so excited and Happy!
∞ BWD Magazine Birds, Wonder & Delight! :)
Formerly Bird Watchers Digest, which suddenly and unexpectedly went under in December 2021... It was just tragic, especially after everything that had happened to the Thompson family who started it. It made me cry a lot.
But everyone involved with the magazine, loved it so much, that they are working to make it happen again!
∞ BWD
is Back! (Please Subscribe!)
23 April 2022 post at Julie Zickefoose's blog
Oh my gosh, I just can't get over the colours at the prairie!
The pink flowers are a little too far away to see clearly from the road, and I had assumed it was invasive Sweet Pea... but look! It's actually Checker Mallow!
Pretty, pretty!
I walk thru the little forest.
And arrive at the Robin's nest.
Um? It's empty. It's obviously empty. And I guess it was empty yesterday, when they were mowing as well.
What the heck? The babies I saw on Monday, were not giving me the impression that they were ready to fledge. Did the mowing force them out early? Or were they actually ready to go? WAI! I don't know!
When I got home, I hit the internets! Whoa! From the time they hatch, baby Robins are only in the nest for 14 days and then they are ready to start flying.
Dang that's fast! I should have been paying more attention! Here's a good page about it:
∞ Baby
American Robins: All you need to know (with pictures)
The pics there are super cute!
Well. That's a bummer that I wasn't able to spend more time with baby Robins. But their parents were irritated with my anyway, so maybe it's for the best.
When I was looking thru my pics of the empty nest... What in the world?!!!
Like, Seriously! Is that a tiny creature??! She's looking down at me! ha!
Some kind of beetle, maybe? But how weird and wonderful! :)
Well. Here's a Robin, finally! One of the parents, still keeping their evil eye on me? :)
I go round the corner. Oh! Beautiful! Butterfly! A Western Tiger Swallowtail. Interested in the Himalayan Blackberry blooms, again.
On the way back home, there was some kind of event going on in the park behind the apartments. A storage pod and a port-a-potty had been set up and there were kids all over the place!
There were a couple kids at the edge of the park, I was
watching them as I walked, trying to figure out what was
going on. The oldest boy noticed me and turned around
and motioned shhh
. I tilted my head in question,
and he whispered We're playing hide and seek!
Ahh! *laughs*
I looked it up when I got home. Eugene Rec has organized a Fun For All to provide activities for kids at some of our parks thru the summer. It runs 10am to 4pm M-F. It's free and a free lunch is provided!
So Awesome. This is the kind of thing that makes me proud to live in Eugene!
The Mallards at the creek continue to try to have children. With H5N1 killing most of the babies, I can't imagine how hard that is for the Mamas.
Oh, nice! Freebie tomato plants at the Community Garden!
Well, it's a bit late to be planting damaged and seriously root bound vege plants. And I already have an excess of tomato plants. But what the heck. I grab two plants which already have a full sized fruit on each... If they die I'll have a couple fried green tomatoes, if they live I'll get to try out a new kind of tom!
I find some space and dig out some weeds for the new plants... one next to the Giant Marigolds, and one next to the Lemon Cucumber row cover.
One of the Zucchini plants that got munched almost to death by Striped Cucumber Beetles has decided to live, after all. That's nice, but with such a rough start to life, I doubt it will make many zucs.
The heirloom Yellow Pear Tomato plant is making fruits!
A Violet Green Swallow.
Aww! One of the Bluebird Fledglings!
And here's Mama Bluebird.
On the walk home, I meet up with my Muscovy friend.
And at home, I rinse off the lettuce I picked at the garden. Dawn the Guinea Pig will Love this!!
The Magnolia Trees on my street are blooming.
Magnolia trees are amazing to me! These trees are so old, they showed up before bees evolved and the flowers were probably pollinated by beetles! 95 million years. That's just crazy interesting to me! :)
Huh, this is weird... Mama ducks don't usually bring their babies to hang out with a bunch of other adults. I guess the duck food someone threw down was too tempting.
Okay. Chopping down some grass at the garden! This little section in the front has gotten totally out of control. I let it go because the Crocuses are in there, somewhere. And also a couple of the Columbines. Here's the BEFORE picture...
The red fence post is marking the front left of the garden plot with the pathway on the left in the pic. Here's AFTER...
Much nicer! ... Or at least, much less likely to count against us when they do plot inspections! ha.
Two plantings of Wax Beans are all coming up, tho a bit munched by the slugs. That's a couple of leftover Fava at the top... it was the winter cover crop, and mostly died off at the beginning of January, in a cold snap. I left the few that survived.
(The sticks are marking the border to the next plot. She's got some serious Comfrey going there!)
GAH!
Well. At least there's not hundreds devouring the entire stupid plants.
Hi, Beautiful!
Oh. These are interesting pod thingees! Sign calls this an Empress Tree. It had purple blossoms in the spring. Oh. And is very invasive in southeast US, from Asia.
Two kids, still at the Osprey nest
Oh wait...
Oh, wow! It's the third kid, and she's caught a fish!!
And she's def not sharing!! *laughs*
So I was headed towards the new Downtown Riverfront park... but, oh. What's this?
Well, crud. Past the barriers you can walk by, is a 6ft, covered chain link fence... you can't even see what they're doing in there. They've closed the park in preparation of the World Athletics Championship, which is 15 to 25 July.
I knew they'd be using the new park for events. But bummed I can't walk thru the park today.
The sign says to detour around the park, just follow the
colourful arrows!
uh huh.
There's ONE stupid arrow and I get lost at the edge of
downtown pretty quickly! sighs. Major Fail, Eugene!
And oh the irony... the new banners that cover up the
broken windows at the old Steam Plant say
The Place To Be
. And, well, yeah!
That's where I wanted to be! Down there! Not up
here on this stupid car bridge! :Pbttt
My sense of direction gets turned around, but I get back to the path going back to the Rose Garden.
GAH!
∞ The brutal US abortion ruling is a potential death sentence for all pregnant women Doctors in many states are now barred from intervening unless they're sure someone is about to die. Inevitably, some will.
Abortion is health care. and Criminalizing health care is never good for anyone.
I'm heading to the garden again today, but I get some walking in first! And look who I found... It's the Mama Duck who got her tail ripped off. I can't believe she's still alive!
Oh, awesome! This is a Pacific Clubtail...
And at the garden... Holey leaves on the Zucchini plant, even under the row cover? Dang it!
Oh... that looks like slug damage. Foo. Well, I'm not putting the row cover back on, so if it survives the slugs, it will also have to survive any remaining Cucumber Beetles. Sighs. Gardening is stupid.
Well. Here's something nice to cheer me up!
Oh, hello? What the heck is going on with this roof?
hmmm...
Everybody okay in there?
Ya'll see this? Do you know what happened?
*laughs* Can we get some roof maintenance here?!
Okay! So the freebie, mystery tomato plants that I got last week, do actually have names! I had grabbed two Gold Medal tomatoes, and there are some Brandywines on the picnic table as well. It's probably pointless, but I grab two more of each!
The Gold Medals each have a single tomato growing on them, so that's four free tomatoes... plus a summer of pointless watering, since they probably won't have time to do anything else besides get their roots in order! ha.
Giant Marigolds are thinking about doing something...
And the Heirloom Yellow Pear Tomato is definitely doing stuff! Yay!
Damn you!
On the way home, I came across a happy crow family. I interrupted one of the kids getting preened by a parent. Here's kid, you can tell she's a fledgling by that little bit of pink gape on her mouth.
And here's one of the parents, caw, cawing! Both crow parents help raise the kids, and they sometimes have a third helper parent as well.
Ha! The House Sparrow fledgling is still a funny ball of fluff!
Mama Bluebird...
The lettuce is so pretty.
A wildflower in the garden that I want to learn about...
Lovely, lovely Strawberries.
Cute potato plants.
I don't know what tree this is. The leaves are about the size and shape of sunflower leaves, and it makes long, black bean pods in the autumn.
The flowers make me think of candy!
Sighs. More ducklings. Seven babies in this new family. They will not survive avian flu, H5N1. :( It's killed most all the babies this year, but the parents keep trying.
Oh, hey! Is this the House Sparrow fledgling? Looking decidedly less fluffy today!
I am enjoying the blue sky today...
Some Sun Golds, in the making!
A few of last winter's cover crop of fava have survived to make pods...
Supposedly Fava beans taste like Lima beans. I hate Lima beans! haha! So I'm not going to eat these!
Wow. So bright, I caught sight of him from far away!
Dang it... why did this one have to be too far away as well?!
He's a Lazuli Bunting, a summer visitor here.
Price of gas is still pretty high. I think it topped out at 5.499$/gal at the beginning of the month.
*laughs* Me too!!
The Whoa
involves a pic of a Heron,
and comes at the end.
Because I'm all about click bait these days!
Bahaha!!! Did I make you laugh as well???
Front right of the garden plot...
Lemon Cucs in front. Much of the green in the middle is the very successful Mammoth Clover, which utterly failed as a winter cover crop a couple years ago. haha. There's various cherry tomato plants in there: a couple Sun Golds and a heirloom Yellow Pear tom. On the right, you can just barely see the little Leeks.
Right side middle...
Under the big row cover is the secondary patch of Lemon Cucumbers. I'm removing the little row cover today, there's a green Zucchini under it. You can't really see it, but in the middle of the pic there are a couple Gold Medal, freebies tucked in the Giant Marigolds.
And the first Marigold is blooming today!
And the back corner, is bolting lettuce and some beets and I'm letting it go wild now...
In the front is a yellow Zucchini. And the new strawberry patch is on the left.
The left side of the garden...
That's two little Sweet Potatoes in front of a big Comfrey. You can't see the rest, but there's a regular potato patch, a couple freebie Brandywine tomatoes, the Wax Bean patch, and another green Zucchini. Along with some random fava which has survived as the winter cover crop!
I've got several volunteer Elephant Garlics, and I've been eating the scapes. But this one I've let bloom!
Oh pretty! Someone has Gladiolus in their plot!
And then walk home...
And here's the Whoa! I promised... Was taking pics of this Great Blue Heron...
When the focus on the camera went wonky and revealed...
Ha! Wow! He's an Eight Spot Skimmer and I didn't even know he was there until I saw my pics!
It's funny because usually I get so mad when then camera loses focus on my target!!
So I've looked at a map, and I hope I get around the new Downtown Riverfront Park without getting lost this time. It's closed because they are using it for the World Athletics Championships, which started yesterday and runs until the 25th.
This amazing mural just outside the Rose Garden was finished just in time for the Championships.
And, of course, you can't go by the Rose Garden without obsessively taking photos of the roses.
And then we gotta check the Osprey nest on the other side of the river. There's one child there today, and she takes off ... only to make a loop and come back to the nest.
