Dove Bits

 I'm obsessed with the little golden patches on the male doves' necks. And dove feet, too!

 Look!

I mean...look at those feet!

Close?

 Well, we tried to see comet Neowise a few weeks ago...we drove to the edge of the ocean. Lovely sunset with planet (Jupiter?) visible. We never saw Neowise, although the guys next to us with scopes and fancy cameras definitely had it in their viewfinders. So we sort of saw it? Kinda sorta?

The First

The first of my pandemic dahlias on the way to blooming! Yay!

Hello, Stranger

 A rare visitor to the backyard "fountain" (old fountain broken, new one still on back order--thanks, COVID!): a mockingbird. Not pictured: it was lifting its wings up and down as it stood on the platform.

Bee on Flower Action

 Flowers, bee; bee, flowers. That's all! (Points if you get the Devil Wears Prada reference...)

Rosy Glow

 Summer sunsets...not as spectacular as winter ones, but lovely nonetheless.

Flights of Fancy...

  ...foliage, that is! Aren't these all absolutely amazing?

Mother Nature, the best artist!

Feline Alert

This is what happens when a cat comes into the yard...everyone gets on the wires and makes noise at the cat. 

Even the male oriole, up there at top right.

Cloud Break

 A time-out from all birds, all the time. I present: clouds!

A Wren's Tale: Postscript

 On a Sunday, I set myself up to photograph the babies again...I waited for about 20 minutes and no activity at all at the nest. Hmmm...

Then I went into the garage to do some laundry, and I heard frantic, loud cheeping, which I thought was coming from the roof, so I went outside to look. Nope. I went back inside and found this little fledgling hanging onto the roll-up garage door for dear life. (Insert eyeroll and crying emojis.) B. had left the garage door (not the roll-up one) open for just a minute or two while he retrieved a ladder. This little dude apparently flew in (but WHY?!), the door closed, and he/she was stuck. No parent or siblings anywhere around. We tried to shoo it out of the garage, but of course it panicked and flew all around, finally bonking its head on the window. Sigh. We took it outside and let it recover.

So tiny and cute!

 Finally it hopped, then flew onto the fence. Then it flew further onto the fence. Then it flew into a tree, then onto the  garage roof, then onto the potting shed roof, then onto the neighbor's roof, and finally away. It was cheeping/crying for its parents the entire time...

 Fly free, little one!

A Wren's Tale: Part V

 Now they look like real baby birds...and they stick their heads all the way out when the food delivery arrives.

 And we have poop at the entrance (ewww...)