A few anecdotes

Remember the ducks' close Peregrine encounter the other day (April 16)? Well, I think the male Blue-winged Teal is still suffering PTSD from it. He skulks in the brush at the edge of the tank, not even entering the water unless flushed. I saw that behavior once before in a Mexican Duck in Alpine that had gotten attacked. For two weeks it skulked in the tall grass by the pond, unless flushed. I assumed it was dying, but it eventually came back out and was fine.

I was alarmed to see how much the big tank had gone down since the rain of April 8. If it leaks it would be disastrous. But I did the math....down 7-8" after I measured. The sloping sides makes it look like more. Evaporation is approximately half an inch per day. Tomorrow will be the 14th day, so I'm good. Whew!

Fortunately the mulberries are holding out OK on the tree. Cool weather has helped, although today it got up to 90.°  It's supposed to cool down tomorrow for a couple of days and maybe even rain before the temperature makes a serious climb. I always hope the berries will last through the time all the warblers come through. Hoping for a fallout sometime in the next two weeks or so. I had a scare today when early this AM a flock of Cedar Waxwings descended on the tree but they left after eating a few berries. A visitor said a Peregrine scared them. I didn't get to see that.

Every year at this time I think the House Finches are the reddest they've ever been. We have the redder subspecies, San Luis House Finch (carpodacus mexicanusus potosinus).

And at long last I discovered that creosote is good for something. Marine Blues like it. Now I need to see what Marine Blues are good for. I love their color coordinated abdomens though.

Warblers arrive when the acacias are blooming and they're almost there.