The Birds! ...in the Hitchcock sense...

On hearing quite a lot of strange noise yesterday—squeaks, squeals, and even the sound a door makes when it is in desperate need of WD40—I followed my ears to the patio out back. I must give you the setting; we have what is called an “outdoor room” on the back. That is a porch or patio with 3 walls and a roof because it is recessed into the footprint of the house as though it is another room, but without an outside wall. They’re great – I want at least 2 in our new house! But I stray. My ears finally led me to the ceiling corners of this outdoor room where I saw cliff swallows clinging in each corner, anywhere from 2 to 4 birds per corner. When I opened the door, they flew off and I thought that was the end of it. But as with Hitchcock’s classic, the birds had a different agenda. They returned – and returned – and returned again. Each time I opened the door, they flew off, but we noticed a large and increasing number wheeling around the back of the house. And, every time they flew off, the corners where they had been clinging seemed dirtier. I looked more closely and realized that they were daubing mud into the corners to make nests. So we vigilantly chased them off and they, with equal determination, came back. Until the sky turned heavy and dropped a curtain of rain, bringing them to shelter somewhere else. We had noticed the flock of cliff swallows swarming – do birds swarm? – around the front of a house up the street a couple of weeks ago, and assumed they were building their mud-daub nests in his front porch corners. We commented that we didn’t envy him and wondered what he might do to disperse the colony before the colony made a mess of his porch. Now, Hitchcock has moved down the street to our address. An unwelcome avian neighbor.

Also out back and just off the edge of the patio, we have let a thistle plant grow. This specimen has grown to a noteworthy height and has thrown a dozen or more blossoms. Now that those blossoms have gone to seed, we have had as many as 4 Lesser Goldfinches at a time perched on the seedheads. A couple of house finches have tried to harvest the thistle seeds, but the stems bend under them since they are so much heavier. They aren’t easily deterred, but it’s a challenge for them to stay upright and eat.

There is a really gorgeous Bullocks Oriole that has moved into the neighborhood. I noticed him first in the Agave blossom on the next street, which is in peak bloom – brilliant, psychedelic yellow and orange. I didn’t see him until he moved – he is as brilliant as the blossom. He was there for a couple of days, and then yesterday, I saw him in the scrub oak next to the kitchen window and this afternoon, right out my office window. I’m glad he’s hanging around and brightening my view.

Other fauna…and be forewarned! While not a Hitchcock remake, if you’re squeamish of squiggly things, skip this part! In the last two weeks, I’ve seen two – 2! – tarantulas on the side of the road. Nutmeg took one sniff, and decided she didn’t want to investigate further. I, on the other hand, stopped to study the creatures as large as my hand. Also along the roadside, I saw a horny toad. These are critters that Nick remembers fondly from his childhood in the Tucson desert. He used to play with them and carry them home. Don’t you imagine his mother and his sisters were just thrilled! And, we opened our front door to take the dog out the other day and there was the largest grasshopper I have ever seen. This was Hitchcock to be sure – that bug was about 4 inches long. When it spread its wings, I thought – PARASAILING! Finally, we discovered a many-ped on the back porch early one morning. I call it a ‘many-ped’ because I didn’t stop to count its legs, but there were a lot of legs along its 4 or 5 inch wiggling length. Sheesh – just get a little rain, and see what crawls out of the crevices.

As I sat here writing this email, Nick called me to look out the window and check out the two six-packs of deer feeding right alongside the house. One was so close to my window that all I saw was its hair (fur?). If they were bold earlier in the year about coming around the house, now that their food sources are drying up down in the arroyos and along the stream beds they are brazen now. Just hang on, though, the monsoon season is starting. It has rained some part of most days for the last week. Just in time: the 4th of July is almost here.

In closing, I have to recommend a web page I found by accident on the Washington Post website. It is called, “onBeing” and consists of short video interviews of people. The videos are about 3 minutes on average, and the interviews are of average Washington people – except they are mostly far from average. I have now watched most of those listed. They are by turns funny, hilarious, surprising, moving, sad, insightful and passionate. Spend a few minutes and you’ll be hooked. Apparently a new video is added every Wednesday. I’m hooked.