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cross that off the list!

4/26/2015

Ta-dah! Our new patio has arrived! We wanted one for quite some time and have been saving up diligently. Now that it's finished, it is even better than imagined! We chose a mocha-blend of varied sized pavers that offsets the color of our home perfectly. I foresee many afternoons and evenings relaxing and eating meals on our patio for years to come.

The landscaping guys did an excellent job and were such hard workers. We were impressed!

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garden casualties

4/19/2015

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Now that the weather has warmed up, I have had a chance to get outside and check out all of my plants. I've come to the realization that the winter of 2014-15 has been the worst 'winter kill' year to date! I rarely lose daylilies, but this year I lost FIVE of them. One of my losses was "Gilded by Grace" pictured above. Frown-face!! The losses weren't just daylilies, but across the board a little bit of everything. I always expect to lose a mum or two, so that never fazes me. Perhaps it was moles; maybe the wet, icy weather conditions with little snow cover. Who knows? Gotta let it go and move on!

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hungry deer love daylilies

4/12/2015

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Saturday was not only a beautiful, sunny, 65 degree day--it was also the first day that I have been in my garden this year. It felt great to be outside for a good part of the day and I got a head start on the early weeds. The recent rains we've had actually made weeding enjoyable.

But no matter what I do, the deer are always one step ahead of me! The snow is barely off the ground and the deer have eaten my daylilies down to the dirt, stomped my plant tags, and left big holes in the ground where they have walked through my flower beds. Aarrrgh! And so starts my yearly ritual of getting everything put back together, but most importantly, spraying my flowers with Liquid Fence to train the deer to stay out of my flower beds. I need stock in that company!

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mourning doves

4/5/2015

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Earlier this week I walked by my friend Sally's garden on my lunch hour to see what was sprouting. Sally showed me a Mourning Dove nesting in her Weeping Mulberry tree. If you look very closely, in the lower center of the photo you can see the bird. I took this photo with my iPhone from as close as I dared to go. Nest abandonment is common with these birds. If they feel threatened from predators whether human or animal, they will abandon both eggs and nestlings. When frightened they may accidentally knock an egg out of the nest.

Nests are often found in the crotch of a tree. They usually lay 2 white eggs (single eggs are rare) that are incubated for 14-15 days. The young will leave the nest in 12-14 days. Mourning Doves often use the same nest for up to five sets of eggs in a single season, starting as early as March. They incubate their eggs continually. Since the male and female look alike, it looks like the same bird is on the nest the whole time. The male does a daytime shift and the female does the night shift. If you are not around during the changing of the guard, it appears that the same bird has been on the nest the whole time.

The average lifespan of first year birds is 1 to 1.5 years. First year birds have a mortality rate of 60-75% and adults have a mortality rate of 50-60%. For any songbird the first year of survival is the most difficult. If these birds survive their first year they can live on the average 4-5 years. Predators are hawks, snakes, squirrels, cats, and hunters.

What fascinates me most about doves is the sound their wings make when they take off and land. The whistling sound occurs because of their wing anatomy. The flight feathers at the rear of the mourning dove’s wing are contoured. This shape creates an audible, high-pitched vibration when the wings flutter rapidly, which sounds like the bird is whistling. In flight their wings are inaudible.

Although Mourning Doves mate for live, if one partner dies, eventually, the surviving bird will find a new mate.

Statistics and info from: www.wild-bird-watching.com

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cross that off the list!

garden casualties

hungry deer love daylilies

mourning doves

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