When I first thought up this title, I was thinking of Jackie Gleason ... but ... maybe it was Cassius Clay aka Mohammed Ali who said that so often. I guess they both did. Whatever ... what I'm talking about here is birds. There are cute birds, exotic birds, great birds, but the other day I saw the Greatest! ... but ... some background first.
I realize that this is supposed to be my travel log, but when my farthest travel is to the back yard, I guess that's all I have to write about. I've got what I think are some interesting ramblings, accompanied by some moderately impressive photos, on topics that have come to me in the back yard and surrounding areas. If it was just ramblings, I'd put this in my newsletter, but since I never put photos in my newsletter, it has to be here. If you're only interested in REAL TRAVEL STUFF, feel free to ignore this chapter.
Background - Almost every morning, Joyce spends about an hour or so sitting on the patio, drinking her coffee and reading the morning paper. While out there, however, she always keeps one eye out for "activities" in the back yard and beyond. Beyond the patio is the yard, with all it's bushes and trees, then the fence, then the overhead powerlines, then the drainage ditch (approximately 40 feet wide and, as I learned recently, full of fish about a foot long), and then the tall Pine trees and 40-foot Bamboo shoots. All of these areas, as it turns out, are prime territory for a variety of birds ranging from humming birds to Great Blue Herons. Every year about his time (May-July), we start seeing birdnests here and there all around the yard.
My Travel Log
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76. I Am The Greatest!
On the right, you'll notice our backyard trellis (animated!). It's covered in Star Jasmine and they grow like weeds. Joyce frequently gets out there with her electric clippers and trims them back, along with assorted Topiaries and other shrubbery around the yard. So, why is that trellis so unkempt and scraggly? Is the yard-lady on strike? Nope ... the birds are nesting. If you'll click that animated photo, you might be able to see mama in the nest in the enlarged version.
Likewise, as seen in photos below, the Topiaries are getting fat and touching the roof, other trees are getting really bushy, and it's mainly due to bird nests. But this past May, Joyce was reading her paper, saw some action, grabbed her binoculars, and called me out to see the most fantastic nest of all! Read on!
If you look at the animated Trellis photo above, you'll see some tall Pine trees off in the distance. Well, you see the tallest one directly above the trellis? Well, she was looking up that direction and along came the largest bird she'd ever seen up in that tree! We've seen some fairly large Ospreys, a couple of even larger Bald Eagles, but this was a Great Blue Heron! They look big on the ground, looking like they're about 4 feet long (my guess) from top of head to tip of tail. But, when they're landing on the top of a tree, with their wings spread wide, they look like a Boeing 747 landing -- ever seen one? They seem to just float slowly to the runway, even though they're actually travelling somewhere in the 200 mph range. Well, this Great Blue Heron (GBH) looked just like that.
Upon closer inspection, we learned that there were actually two GBHs up there. One would bring in large sticks (not twigs, but sticks!) and the other would carefully place them into the nest under construction. Joyce insisted that it was Papa bringing and Mama building, but Wikipedia indicates that Papa has more control over the nest, so I'm not sure what the case is there. Whatever ... this went on for several days.
Eventually, the nest was completed and one of the birds, most likely Mama, sat on the nest. She'd sit there all day, getting up and re-arranging every few hours. I'm assuming she was turning the eggs ... I guess. Anyway, she'd very seldom leave the nest. Every now and then, we'd see her returning to the nest, presumably gone off to eat something. Not sure if Papa sat on the eggs while she was gone.
This went on for over a month! I looked in Wikipedia to see how long the eggs took to hatch, but they weren't very clear on that. At any rate, this went on for most of June - Joyce watching while drinking coffee, and keeping her eye out of her "office" window when she was back there painting. Then, along came my surgeries, travelling to Tampa, recovering, etc., so we didn't have much time to watch.
A couple of weeks ago, I looked up there and .. lo and behold ... no more Mama. Did the eggs hatch? Were there ever any eggs? Would we ever know for sure? ... Read on. AS USUAL, CLICK ANY PHOTO TO SEE AN ENLARGED VIEW.
Faraway view - nest is in the center of the photo
Zoomed in - view of both
Mama and Papa
Mama preening
Not sure who this is - looks like Mama checking for fleas
Faraway view - Mama moving around the nest
Zoomin of the photo on the left
Best view of both birds -
Can't enlarge this
Best view of Mama -
Can't enlarge this
So what's that about "THE GREATEST"? Well, I was tapping along on my computer a couple of days ago, when Joyce hollered for me from the patio. I went on out and she told me to look out on the fence. Wow! I figured that baby GBHs would be like baby Ducks, Geese, and Swans - little fuzzy blobs that only slightly resemble their parents.There on the fence, however, was a perfectly formed, precisely proportioned GBH - but, it was only about 10-12 inches long! The most amazing little bird I've ever seen. Looked just like a miniaturized version of an adult GBH. He wasn't just a GREAT Blue Heron, he was the GREATEST Blue Heron! And no, I couldn't get a picture. By the time I went back in and got my camera, he was flying away. If I get a photo at some time in the future, I'll put it out here and send out an email about it.
OTHER ASSORTED TOPICS
So that's it for the birds. And now, I've got some other little items that intrigued me, so I took some photos.
Firstly, I was at our neighborhood MacDonald's recently, eating one of their Big Macs, when I saw the strangest thing. On your right - Click for a larger view. Is MacDonald's suddenly paying enough to allow their 'server of the month' to drive a $50,000 Crossfire? ... LOL
And, finally, a little addendum to my June 2006 newsletter, where I say "I found some neat RV videos (thanks to Chuck Woodbury's newsletter again) about tire care and handling blow-outs. They're on the Michelon Tire website and have some great advice and information. I'm not sure I agree totally with them (like the stepping on the gas when you get a blow-out), but they're the experts so maybe they're right. Check them out and make your own decision." Below, click the Michelon guy to check out those videos.
