An Egg & More

It looks like a house sparrow has persisted in making a nest in our window nesting box, even though I've tried to scare it off a couple times. (Don't tell Danielle!) I found an egg tonight. Hopefully that will be the only one it lays, although more house sparrows would make more food for our neighborhood hawk. (I really dislike these birds!) I am sad that's the only nest in our yard this year. Maybe we'll get lucky and a hummingbird will make its home in one of our pear trees. I am still waiting for their arrival. The last two years my first hummer of the season arrived at the end of April, so they are a little late this year.

I have been watching the peregrine falcons on this falcon cam. The past two years the clutches were unsuccessful, so it is great to see the first little white fuzzy chick. Hopefully the rest of the eggs will hatch, too.

The beds around our patio turned out smaller than they were supposed to when the patio was designed (loooong story), so we are kind of limited in what we can plant. The past two years we didn't plant too much because we were waiting for the contractors to fix some problems. This summer I am hoping to grow some plants to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. I did a little research and planted some perennials last weekend. (The corncobs are place holders for the lantana I intend to plant once it warms up a little.) I was happy to see the "gay butterfly plants" have already started to sprout. I hope they all will look pretty once they fill in. Even more I hope they will attract a lot of different butterflies and more hummingbirds. The only negative is that I didn't have enough room to plant any tomatoes. I need a bigger yard!

Look at this beautiful chair Ron made. This was before it was stained. He made two of them out of cypress wood and spent about 40 hours making the two of them. I think adirondack chairs are typically very uncomfortable but these are not. They are so beautiful and comfy. I can't wait until the stain has cured so we can put them on the patio and I can sit and wait for the butterflies and hummingbirds!