April 19, 2005

We were out of town for a week, and things changed markedly in that short time. It's much warmer, for example, in the eighties during the day, though still cool at night. All the cactus on the property are in bud, and should be gorgeous when they jump into bloom. The palo verdes in town are covered in beautiful yellow flowers, very reminiscent of the forsythia we saw in New Jersey and Long Island. (The ones in our yard are apparently retarded--no signs of bloom.) The pomegranate bush has several bright orange-red trumpet flowers that the hummers seem to like.

The mama dove is still sitting on her nest in the carport. Whenever we drive up she blinks, but doesn't seem to move otherwise.

This morning I saw a mama and papa quail with four little ones way out in the back yard. I haven't seen other babies, but there are probably a lot around in other quail families. Four doesn't seem like very many, so I assume something may have happened to the nest.

While I was gone the yard guy moved the end of the hose that creates the waterfall in my pond so that it is sort of spurting into the air like a fountain. It's kind of cool--sounds and looks good, but is quite a rush of water. This morning I saw a hummingbird trying to decide whether to bathe (or drink) or not. The bird repeatedly approached the water and hovered, its tail fanned out as if in a threat display. At one point it got drops of water on its beak but didn't seem to be drinking, and eventually gave up. I moved some rocks so there is a quieter area that is off to the side, so maybe he'll be able to use that. I'm going to see about building a better waterfall, but will need a bunch more rocks.