April 6
More signs of spring: all the bushes, trees, and most of the flowers are blooming or past bloom. It's starting to get hot during the day, but still cool at night. Yesterday afternoon I was watching through binoculars as a female hummer (probably an Anna, but I'm not sure) stuck most of her head into salmon-colored trumpet flowers on a vine that I don't know the name of. The blooms were quite small, but she managed to get right down into them. And when she emerged, her head was bright yellow with pollen. As she hovered, a goldfinch perched on the fence next to her; they were the same shade of yellow.

The other night coming home late we were startled when we got out of the car by a scrabbling and clawing sound, as if a critter were trying to escape from the shelves in the back of the carport. There is a rabies epidemic in the county these days, so we hastened on in. The next morning we checked out the carport and found a large black trash bag containing potting implements ripped open. We speculated that it might have been a coyote, a stray dog or cat, or even a bobcat that had previously learned those bags sometimes contain delicious garbage.

But it turned out that probably wasn't what made the sound. This morning my yard guy asked if I'd seen the bird nest on the shelves. And sure enough, there sat a sweet little mother mourning dove on her messy pile of sticks that doves think are nests. She was perfectly still, and nearly the same color as the shelving. We are going to leave her alone until her babies have flown, and then clean up the shelf.