Red Tailed Hawk?

Yesterday morning, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I noticed the birds in my backyard were acting strangely. So, I went to the sliding door to take a better look. There was a hawk chasing all the birds! He/she moved too fast for me grab my camera. So, I found a picture of similar hawk on New York Daily Photo. I think this one looks pretty close. But my hawk did catch anything, at least I didn't see him/her catch any bird. We have lots of birds in our neighborhood, blue jay, robin, cardinal, chickadee, goldfinch, mocking bird, sparrow, and maybe owls. But rarely any hawks. I saw one about 3 years ago, different color though. He was so awesome, caught a bird right in the sky, and ate it right in my backyard. It was amazing! OK, not for that poor bird who got caught. We don't see these kind of wild life activities so often in suburb or city, so I enjoyed every single minute of it. I probably should stayed in the house, but I was curious enough to went out on to the deck for more action and better view. Guess that hawk didn't like to be so close to human, so it left as soon as he/she saw me. Too bad! Next time, stay inside, and grab my camera asap.

I lost my babies!

This morning I came downstairs and saw through the window that the robin nest on its side. I thought it was because of the strong wind last night. So, I went out to help and thinking about looking for the babies and put them back. I really thought they must be on my porch floor around the nest. What I saw was like a CSI scene. There were blood stains all around, and two tiny feet sadly lying there, maybe some other tiny pieces of my robin babies! I was totally not prepared for that, so I jumped backward and screamed. A cat or other animal must found the babies and ate them all during the night. I didn't even hear anything, otherwise, I would have came out and help the babies. Their mother trust me so much to build their nest on my porch, I feel like I let them down. I should have put the nest in a hanging basket and kept it off the floor. I feel somewhat responsible for their death. I know this is the reality, that I should let the nature take its own course. But I have been watching them from day 1, and they are my babies! I feel so sad, and so sorry for the mama#2. She must be so scared and angry and heartbroken. I cannot get that bloody scene out of my mind, every time I close my eyes, even just blinking, I can still see those tiny feet lying there, hopelessly in the dried blood pool. I did take some crime scene pictures, but they are just too brutal to show online, I am affraid they will give other bird lovers nightmares as well. Let's just remember them as they were in the pictures from yesterday's post. I couldn't believe that was their last day. Not only I cannot stop thinking about that scene, I have to go home to that, and I have to bury the tiny feet and wash off the blood stain. What am I supposed to do with my English Ivy? It still looks alive underneath the nest, I could carefully remove the nest and rescue the ivy, but it will be a very painful reminder to me. I guess I just have to throw the whole thing away, so I can at least try to forget it and move on. I need to mentally block the bad memories and cherish the good and happy ones, the ones when the babies were still alive and healthy, and they would lift their heads and open their mouths to beg for food everytime I whistle. At least their eyes were still closed, so they didn't see their predator, and hope they didn't suffer much either. Goodbye, my babies! I will stop eatting chicken for at least a week to honor your death. That's the least I can do.

I will put a couple hanging baskets up for the mama#2 to build her second nest, and have more babies. Hope she is not injuried, and not too scared to come back to my yard. I am so sorry for you, mama#2!

Eyes Still Closed

Here are the baby robins at 8am. Can you see that their tiny wings are forming quite fast. I think the one in the middle is the oldest, and the one at the lower right corner is the youngest, judging by their size. Just hope mama can bring home enough food for everyone, so even the smallest one can grow up. Here they are at 7pm. They start to look like their parents. The other thing I read online about robins is dad helps out with feeding, but he will never sit in the nest. That's good to know. Maybe that is why these babies are growing so fast.
Here are some seedings I bought yesterday for the hanging baskets and the window boxes. I also started some marigold and nasturtium from seed. I want to try something different this year, so I am going to use marigold, sweet potato vine, and spider plants in the hanging baskets, and hope that I don't have to fight pests in summer. I will pot them up this weekend. The other flower seedlings are for my yard. I will show you some pictures when I am done with them.

Grow, Baby Grow!

Do you see what I am seeing? They are so big now! And look at their wings! They actually started growing real feather already, only short 4-5 days after hatching. WOW! I read more about robins online today, and learned that the baby robins grow really fast, and they can fully grown and leave the nest in 14-16 days! Just 2 weeks! I couldn't believe it! Just hope DH will be back by then, otherwise, he will miss all of it. As I was taking this picture, I really wanted to touch them, their little heads, their hairy backs, and pet them a little. But I knew that is exactly what I shouldn't do, I can not get involved in their life, I am just an audience. So, I touched the ivy pot underneath the nest and left quietly. Mama#2 actually tried to come back a couple of times while I was standing there, and she was making that angry sound again. Sorry, but I didn't do anything, just watching.

Where is mama#1?

After the excitement of watching the nest#2 hatching, I am checking more often on nest#1. Ever since we lost one egg, missing for who knows what reason, mama#1 hasn't been sitting in the nest as before. She left the eggs unattended for hours at a time, and I haven't really seen her sitting there at all for the past two days. Maybe that missing egg was taken by some animal, and mama is just scared, or like Mary said, the eggs could be unfertilized and mama realized that and giving up. Since these 3 were a couple of days earlier than the 4 already hatched in nest#2, who were hatched about 2-4 days ago, I think the chance for these 3 are very slim. I hope they are still alive, and have all my fingers crossed now. Checked on nest#2 this morning. Look at mama#2, isn't she a beauty? She is very responsible and dedicated to her babies, never stay away for long. All 4 baby robins are looking very healthy. Some of them actually changing color now. There are some very dark, almost black color started to appear on their back, like 3 black lines from head to tail. And the tips of their wings are turning black as well. They are growing bigger very fast. So far, I can still tell which one is the youngest, since it's a little bit smaller than his siblings, but I am hoping that he can pick up some speed and catch up. Otherwise, he stands little chance competing with the others. I might need to help him later. So, I am keeping close eye on him.
Update at 10pm. Here is a picture of the babies. Looks like they are growing bigger by the hour. Try to compare them to the size of the nest, you will notice it too. Wow! How many earthworms mama has to catch to feed them? Their eyes are still closed, and sleep a lot. Sweet dreams, my babies!

And M. just bought a set of my baby gifts! A nursing cover, 2 burp clothes, and a tag blanket, all inside the matching bag. I am so excited. And I washed all the newly purchased squares, and ironed them, so now they are ready to be sewed into more baby stuffs. Cannot wait to get them ready for my store. And I have to make more for the craft show in my hospital later this year. That will be my first craft show, and hope people will love my stuffs. But, that's months later, I am not too worried, just enjoying myself now.

Full House

As this morning, we officially have a full house/nest of baby robins! Great job, mama#2! You can see the 3 older ones clearly in this picture, and the last baby is actually buried underneath the middle one (with his little mouth open) and the one on the right. This picture was taken 11am, and judge by the broken shells still in the nest, I think this last little guy just came out. Welcome to this world, my robin babies!Do you see what I see? The last baby looks much smaller than his brothers! Either he developed slower and is indeed smaller, or the other 3 grew bigger overnight. I guess it could be, mama#2 must have been feeding them good worms. Their skin is not as pink as before, and I think their necks are a little bit thicker. But I could be hallucinating. Anyway, I am so glad all 4 of them hatched, and look healthy so far. Mama#2 is going to be very busy from now on. I put some earthworms in the pot next to them, trying to help. They are so adorable! They breath pretty fast, just like human babies. We can say they sleep 24/7, since their eyes are still closed. Really wish I have a good way to label and measure them.
Nest#1 still has no sign of hatching. I am pretty sure mama#1 is not as experienced as mama#2. She spends lots of time away from the nest, so I guess the eggs have not been warmed, so they developed slower. Wish they are ok in there.

Went thrifting and shopping this weekend, and scored a lot of goodies. I went to Fabric Place again for some small things, ended up coming out with about 20 remnant squares, all cute cute prints, perfect for baby stuffs. If I keep making those baby gifts, I will have to put them up for sale in my store. Not a bad idea! OK, I also bought a beautiful pot for my plants, a wooden bar stool for the kitchen, and some other small items from yard sales, and some brand new fabrics, still in original wrapping, from Sal. Army. I didn't plan it, they were on my way home. I will show you the pictures later.

Two More

I have been checking on the baby robins the entire day. It's just amazing! Two more babies hatched! Remember yesterday I said that one egg had cracks, that was baby#2, came out during the night. Here are some very cute pictures of the baby robins from today.This one was taken before 8am. See the baby on the left? That's the baby #1, it's hairy feathers are almost dry now. The one on the right is baby#2 with very wet feather. They are so tiny, but they do have big head compare to their neck. As you can see, they are sitting there with their heads touching the nest and their necks stretched really long. Their skin is almost transparent, and so pink. How did they fit in those egg shells? They look much larger than the eggs. Here they are at noon time. They actually moved around and switched position. And look at their huge eyeballs, totally black. That's my guess, since their eyes are not open yet. And check out the tiny foot, how cute is that? And did you see that tiny hole on the third egg? Another baby is ready to come out. As I was taping them, I started talking and you can see what happened next. They must thought mommy's home, and it was lunch time. Look at them begging for food with their eyes closed. And man, do they have a big mouth or what! I could see all the way down into their throat. Wow! I taped them for several minutes, and noticed mama robin was standing nearby. So, I guess it must be the little guys' lunch coming, so I left and snapped one more picture from inside. So, sorry about the picture quality. Here they are at 7pm. Baby #3 is out! Look at how sweet they are, have their little heads lined up together, and resting on their last brother, the 4th egg. I bet it will come out too tomorrow morning. I am so glad this is happening on the weekend, so I can spend time tape the process. What a wonderful experience!
And I also checked on nest#1 on the deck. There are still 3 eggs! Good news to me. I thought some animal took the 4th egg, and was worrying about losing more of them. But apparently they are ok. But then when I was painting the kitchen/dining room, I got really worried. Mama #1 was not sitting in the nest, for hours the eggs were alone! My mind went a little bit crazy, wondering where is the mama? Is she safe? Did she abandon the nest? Are those baby robins going to die in the eggs without their mother? What should I do to help? ... Finally mama came back around 6pm. I felt so relieved. Still no baby in nest#1. Maybe mama#1 is not as experienced as mama#2, and didn't spend enough time hatching her eggs. Who knows. I will check on them again tomorrow.

Oh Baby

I know that I am not supposed to post twice on one day, but look at what just happened. My first baby robin! Am I lucky or what? This morning when I left for work, all four egg in nest#2 were still the same, and I thought there will be 3 or 4 more days. But when I got home around 7pm, baby #1 was half way out! I ran into the house and grabbed the camera, but by then, it's already came out! Man, this baby got awesome power! I really wanted to watch this little guy for a while, but I was afraid it might catch a cold without mommy's protection in such a cool and rainy evening. So, I came back in for dinner, and of course mama robin flew back immediately. This is another picture took at 8pm. The little guy was very active, his mouth was wide open, just like those nature shows. but it was still very weak, so, when I took this picture, it fell back into the nest. So adorable! And take a look at the egg to the right, do you see those cracks? Baby #2 is coming out! I will check it again before going to bed. I read some articles about robins, and knew they lay one egg per day, and only start hatching them after there are 3 or 4 eggs in the nest, so the little ones will come out around the same time. This is absolutely amazing! Great timing skill! There might be 4 hungry baby robins next morning. But these eggs were later than the ones on the deck, but those are still quietly sitting there? Maybe the mama#2 is more experienced and sat on the eggs longer than mama#1. Who knows.This is how the nest #1 looks like. A couple of days ago, I finally figured out a way to help mama #1 with the rain situation. I have a plastic shelving unit, which can be taken apart. So, I put one section right over the nest, and put a heavy pot on top, so it won't be blow away that easy. Oh, I also put all my plants out there again. Mama #1 was very curious when I did that, and carefully checking out her newly renovated home, and finally accepted it. Now she has a roof, and beautiful front yard! I will check out her eggs later too.

Missing One Egg

I have been watching the two robin nests very carefully, and tried my best not to disturb the mama robins too often. Yesterday, when I did my routine evening check, I saw only 3 eggs in the nest#1, which is on the sunny deck. Since the mama robin was not there, I walked up closer to check, and found that missing egg outside the nest close to the rim of the pot. (The pot is much bigger than the nest) I didn't know what happened, mama accidentally kicked it out or something or somebody moved it. I moved it back into the nest, of course not with my hand, if mama smell human on the egg, she might abandon the nest. I was hoping that mama robin won't mind and keep hatching all 4 of them. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. This morning, I checked the nest again while mama was out there eating breakfast. There was only 3 little eggs left, and the 4th one was nowhere to be found. I checked on the deck, around the deck, around the house, just could not find it. So now, my guess is some other animal or bird attack this nest and took away one egg! How horrible! I don't know what this means to the rest of the eggs. If the "attacker" liked the taste of that egg, it might come back for more. I wish there is something I can do to protect them. So sad! And I am really worrying about their future now. Oh, I checked the nest#2 on the porch, still 4 eggs. Guess I can only cross my fingers now. One more week before the babies come out. Good luck to all of them!

Late Spring Cleaning -- Week 1, Day 1, rotating seasonal clothes

I know it's not summer yet, but I can still wish for it. Last night I acted on my first target, moving the winter coats on the chairs to attic. It started very simple, but quickly grew into a huge job. I worked very hard for 3 hours, and still went to bed with a messy closet. I put all those winter coats, which I washed already, into those big luggage in the attic, and took all summer clothes down to the bedroom closets. Quite a workout! I knew I have lots of clothes, but still got surprised every year. I probably have enough summer clothes to fill two 70lb capacity luggage, if not more. When I grew up, everyone was poor in China, so we wore those pass-down clothes, and we took care of our clothes carefully so they can last 'forever'. The time has changed, but I still has that habit. Some of my clothes are more than 15 years old, I got them from my sister back in high school. I don't wear them any more, but still want to hold on to them for the sentimental values. And some of the clothes don't fit any more, but I hope to lose some weight and squeeze back in someday. I know, I am quite a packrat! But I am changing, slowly. For the past 3 years, I have been donating my old clothes to Sal. Army, several bags every year. I thought I should have much less clothes now, but apparently, I cannot stop myself from buying new ones. At least, I bought the new ones myself, and wear them often. DH buys my favorite Chinese fashion magazine, Rayli, everytime he goes back, I am trying my best to follow the style, and learning more about makeups and hairstyles. I just LOVE LOVE that magazine. Rayli is THE MOST POPULAR magazine in China, almost all chinese girls read it. I have to remember to take some pictures of it and show you. OK, back to my summer clothes. I only went through half last night, so I have several big piles on my bedroom floor waiting to be sort through, and organized.

	The floor in my bedroom and closet. There is actually another bigger pile right behind, those are all the winter clothes I am going to put into the attic, and a smaller pile of donations.
	My side of the closet, halfway done. There is actually one more shelf on top, and currently holding some of my bags. May need to get some of those canvas boxes to protect them. My jeans and shorts on the shelf in the picture, long dresses at left most section. Shirts and tops hanging on top, skirts and dress pants hanging on bottom. I am running out of hangers, so I doubled every single one of them. So, double the amount what you are seeing in this picture.
	DH side of the closet. I installed that sets of tiny shelves right after we moved in. The clothes on the 3 shelves are DH's T shirts, mine will be on the bottom two. I just bought that white wooden shelf from Target. It's on my way home, I just love to shop there.

Anyway, see that small box on top of that white shelf, it is our escape ladder. Everyone should have one of these in their bedroom, doesn't matter they are renting or owning the house. A fire is a fire, you have to be able to get out if the bedroom door is blocked, and with this, you don't have to jump out of the window and break your legs. So, if you don't have this, go get one, FIRST THING TOMORROW! (It's midnight here now. I am editing this post.) I am going to figure out a way to use the rest of the wall space for my jewelry, esp. my earrings, I like to see all of them when I make my choice in the morning. Back to my clothes on the floor situation. Oh, forgot to mention that I try everything on before making any decision. That's why it took so long. It's messy now, but I can see the finished picture, my well organized closet and dresser, and empty floor! Maybe I can steal some space from DH side. I bet he will never notice.

Now some updates on the robin nests. Nest #2 on the porch, remember? The one in my English Ivy pot.
I am happy to report that both nests have 4 tiny blue eggs now, and the mama robins are sitting on them all the time. So, pretty soon, we should have some cute, but noisy, baby robins. Cannot wait. The only side effect of this is we have to use the side door more often now. And we may not be able to use our deck or porch often this summer, because we don't want to scare the robins all the time. The problem is they nested in my pots, and I do have other plants around them and I have to water them everyday. Guess the robins just have to ignore us. Here is a shot of the nest #1 (on the deck) among all my plants.I know it's kind of confusing, the plants' positions keep changing. It's just we had some pretty cold night last week, and I had to take almost all my tender plants back inside, because orchids and jasmines don't stand a chance against temperature below 32. Hope the baby robins won't attack my flowers later. We'll see.

Mama Birds

I was way too busy this past weekend, didn't even have time to sit down in front of the computer. So, here is the update on the birds. The nest on my sunny deck has 4 eggs now, and the Mama Bird #1 started sitting on them. So, we should be able to see some baby birds in two weeks. The nest on my covered porch has 2 eggs as the last check this morning. Mama Robin A, the one on the deck.Mama Robin B, the one on the porch. Both Mama Birds are very alert, they always sit in their nests, and facing our door. At begining, they flew away as soon as they saw us. But now, I think they are getting use to having us hanging around. But I did closed the sheer curtains at the door or windows near their nests, so they won't be bothered very often by us walking around the house. Sometimes I can see them flying away for a meal, but they won't stay away for long. And when they do return, they are always very careful. They always land on the railings further away, then check the surroundings. They only get closer when they feel safe. And during the rain, they actually open their wings to cover the entire nest, so the babies won't get wet. They are very good mothers. I tried to help by moving the nest to underneath the coffee table's glass top, but the mother just won't come back to her nest. So, after 30 minutes I gave up, and moved the nest back up, into the rain. And you guessed it, the mother came back almost immediately. She must have been watching my every single move. Apparently she was quite angry at me. Do you see the rage in her eyes?
Yesterday, I noticed some broken egg shells on my norfolk pine tree, about 4 yards away from nest two. Some other bird or animal must ate it. But I doubt it's from one of my nests, since I have been checking on them very often, and didn't notice any egg disappearing. Hope my neighbors' cats won't come over. That will be a total disaster.

More eggs

Last night when I got home, there was one more eggs in that tiny nest, the one on my deck! I did some research online, found out that normally robin lays 4 eggs each season. They will lay one egg a day, until the clutch is complete. In my case, the first egg was laid Monday morning, the second was Wednesday, and the third was Thursday. So, if what they said is true, I should expect one more tonight. And apparently the mother robin won't sit on the eggs until she has two or more of them, so she can make sure all her babies hatch around the same time. That is why I only saw the mother for the past two days. I actually snapped some more pictures this morning. Here is mama robin sitting in the nest on my deck. Sorry about the quality of the picture, I had to take the picture from inside the house, through the sliding door. Didn't want to scare her away. Isn't she beautiful?
The more I read about it, the more interested I am. Here is the link to a very good article online, read it if you have time.

Oh, the nest on my porch is still empty. Hope it's not abandoned. The other one was empty for 2 days, but this one has been empty for the past 3 or 4 days. Don't want to waste my English Ivy for nothing.

Update on the Bird Nest

Remember the cute bird nest I told you a couple of days ago? Here is the update. It's not abandoned. I found one of the most beautiful little egg in it last night! It's a wonderful bright turquoise/aqua blue. I am not an expert, so after a little bit research, I think it's a Robin's egg. Haven't seen the parents yet, maybe they are super careful and alert, and always spotted us before we got any closer. But unfortunately, because of the sudden temperature drop, I had to move all my plants back into the house. No way my jasmine can survive outside, so I had to move the nest from the jasmine pot to an empty pot. I left it at the same place, so the parents can still find it, and maybe they won't notice the pot change. Crossing my fingers now. If the parents abandon this nest and egg, it won't even have a chance to hatch. Last year, a robin baby fell into my yard from a tree. I tried to help it by putting it into a small basket, but it was so scared and crawled away. The parents were around, and trying to feed it, but without the safty of the nest, it was killed by some other animal the very next day. Hope this one has a better luck. I will post the pictures later.

And I cannot understand why nobody interested in my little birdhouse. I made it very roomy, and painted it dark green, like a tree. And the best part is it has a roof! It has been raining for the past two days, and everything is soaking wet, including the bird nest. How can the parent birds keep their egg warm in such a cold and wet nest? Why don't they move into my carefully built birdhouse, which is definitely dry inside. I left it next to the little nest, so if the parents changed their mind, it's easier to move. We'll see.

More updates. I am happy to report that the parent birds didn't abandon the nest. Actually, they laid another egg in it. I don't know how many are they going to have, but I am definitely going to keep a record of this whole process.
And look at what I found on my porch, another nest! What is going on with these birds? It seems they all very much in love with my pots! This one is built even better. The birds actually waved my English Ivy into their nest, so I couldn't even take it out. Guess the ivy I grew whole winter, from tiny cuttings, are gone now. Cannot wait to see how many eggs this nest is going to hold. So much activities!

Great Weekend

I had lots of fun this past weekend. First of all, I got a little surprise when I got home from work last Friday, a cute little bird nest in one of my pots. I put my glass coffee table out on the deck and rearranged my plants last Thursday night, and then watered them Friday morning. Just a short day, the birds built that nest in my jasmine pot. It was perfectly built, with dry grass carefully waved into a bowl shape. I was hoping the birds will come back and lay eggs in it, so I can document the birth of the babies. But I think they might realized that is not a safe place, too close to human, and abandoned it. How sad! I built a little bird house that night and hoping the birds will like it and nest in there. But nobody is even showing interests in it. Guess I cannot have a CLOSE relationship with the wild birds. I have to settle with just watching them from inside the house.

I went yard sailing Sat morning. I had a doctor appointment and came back around 11Am, so didn't have time to hit more locations. I only found 4, and not many exciting stuffs. Guess great ones already sold earlier. But I did got something I wanted. I bought two framed arts from our neighbor's moving sale.Since we are neighbors, I didn't negotiate the price. But I drove pass their house late afternoon after their closed up, and got a couple of free glass vases and a glass bowl. So, not bad there. I will paint the frames black to match my other frames, and replace the arts in there. They will look FANTASTIC, and nobody will know they were from some yard sale. OK, maybe keep the paintings for now, until I find better ones.

I drove to the next town, where they were having a town wide yard sale event. The first family was very nice. It was a mom and daughter team, they were selling some old clothes and small things. But I locked my eyes on the pile of fabric immediately. The tag said $.50 each piece, and I found some very nice ones and they were all 2-3 yards! So, I got a whole bag full of fabric for just $3! The bottom two are quilting fabric, and the top four are flannel, so soft, great for baby gifts. And look at the close up of them. Don't you just love the color? Oh, BTW, that little table was also from yard sale, I got it about 8 years ago, and just recently painted it very pale blue. Thinking about using it in our future baby nursery as a small changing table or something. The mom was trying to sell some of the earrings she made too, so I told her about Etsy. She was very happy and give me a bottle of hand lotion for free. NICE!

The last one I went was kind of boring, but I did buy a small fish bowl for DH's little blue fish, so he cannot say I didn't think of him. He liked the fish bowl, and moved the fish right into it. BUT he managed to cracked it that night, and had to throw it away. That was $.75 well spent and wasted in 10 hours! Lucky I got the free glass vase, so the fish still has a home.

Yesterday (Sunday) I got some free time to work in my garden. I dug out some perennials, and moved them to the raised flower bed. I started them from seeds, so they were in the "nursery bed" last year. Now they are big enough and should bloom soon, so I have to move them to their permenant home. And some of others got too big last summer, and started to block the sprinklers. So, now I have one Lavender, 3 Columbines, 3 Purple Coneflowers in the new flower bed. Still waiting for the foxgloves to grow out, and then that flower bed will be very beautiful. Oh, another major thing I did was putting down the soaker hoes. I bought 75ft one, but it's a little bit short. So, now I have to get a shorter one, and connect them to cover the long flower bed. I tried it out, besides the water pressure kind of low at the end, it works perfectly. It will save so much of my time this summer, I can see myself lying in the lounge chair, drinking juice and enjoy sunset!

Overall, it was a great weekend, very productive and satisfying. Sorry for this mile long posting, it's just so much happened during this weekend, and I didn't blog about them until now. So, if you count this one as 3 postings, they are not that long. =)