Since Tuesday...

...is the day we usually volunteer at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, I thought I would talk about animals today. (The AWLA is once again running their "pre-owned" cat specials in conjunction with four car dealerships in the area this summer. An idea they repeatedly give me credit for, even though it wasn't really mine, at most a group-think type of situation...)

There is a nest at the top of the tree in our front yard (the very same tree that's growing through our sewer pipe and has thus made the WC in the basement non-operational). At first I thought it might have been an abandoned nest from last year that the mourning doves took over (because they were sitting in it). They often do that -- they're not the brightest of birds. They often take over old nests or make very poor ones (think three twigs) and then they sometimes lay an egg or sometimes not and independent of the presence of the egg(s) sometimes hang out in the nest sitting on a (possibly fictional) egg(s) for a bit and then wander off when nothing hatches. Low birth rate, due to stupidity, apparently (sorta the opposite of people). We know all this, because we looked up info on the birds because one of the first years we had the house we had a hanging plant on our front porch and a pair of doves made a nest in it. In spite of the fact that we had to open the front door and every time one would fly away and the other would freeze like a statue. And in spite of their apparent failure, they came back the next year (same hanging plant) and tried again. Eventually we took down the hook from which the pot could hang.

So anyway, the mock-cherry tree has this nest near the very top of it, which just happens to be at window level here in the home office, where I spend much time in front of the PC. And I was reasonably confident I had seen a mourning dove sitting in said nest a week or so back. So you can imagine my shock early last week to see a mother robin feeding two babies (I think it was two -- they only pop up one at a time, and they are hideously ugly and thus hard to tell apart.) But appearances aside, I will often find myself pausing in my swearing at Microsoft or the PC or whathaveyou and glancing out the window to see what the bird or birdies are doing. I don't recall ever having this good a view of a baby birds before -- they're usually too high up to see...

Thus, it's with some sense of relief that I noticed today that the babies have developed feathers. Or down. Or something. They're not this sickly pink-orange color save their beaks and huge eyeballs anymore. In fact I can only describe today's witnessed behavior as "scratching their head on momma robin's chest" -- I'm sure that's not what they were doing -- that's merely finding a reference to describe what I saw. They actually make quite a bit of noise when she's feeding them.

The whole thing has made me wonder if last year's "tree climbing snake" (my M-i-L's worst nightmare) will return...

So anyway, that's all I have on birds right now. I did also come across this article from the NY Times on what pets teach us about marriage. Make of it what you will...