It is off to the fair and a helicopter flight!

This beautiful July 23 morning I headed out to Delta fair. Before the midway opened I talked Victoria a youngish woman who worked on the midway and she enthusiastically shared with me the camaraderie and perks of travel in her career. Then I woke with an older gentleman: Sandy who was born at the fair to his fair employed parents. He said it was much like travelling with the circus but the winters off were nice and not everyone would enjoy it. He was the maintenance engineer for all the rides and we spoke of his commitment to the safety of those who put their trust in him. Interesting man for sure.

I truly enjoyed seeing the exhibits and talking to Sharon and Jeff Halliday who are the only poultry exhibitors. Jeff spoke so warmly about his geese … and no… they eat neither them nor their eggs. They enjoy them for their being geese. Jeff commented on how very intelligent they are and I thought they looked it.

Welcome to come with me to the fair

The horse pull. 

This is one of the team that one the pull. Gorgeous gentle intelligent animal … the horse that is. I don’t know the man.

Steam power exhibit. Rowers

Children’s lamb costume contest. This is Tinkerbell

One of Jeff Halliday’s beautiful intelligent geese

Quilting

Wish my corn was that high

Helicopter ride over Delta and Beverly lake. A truly special experience. A special thanks to Miles Bies and Doug the pilot who made it possible for me to fly as solo guest.

She is on the nest

… but I occasionally catch him bringing her food.

• For House Wren eggs, temperature inside the nest box can be critical to survival. If a sun-drenched nest box warms above about 106 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour, the eggs will begin to die. If a cold snap chills a nest below about 65 degrees Fahrenheit for more than a day it can also doom the eggs.  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Wren/lifehistory
• For an egg to develop normally, it must be exposed for a considerable length of time to temperatures a few degrees below the normal 104 degrees F (40 degrees C) avian body temperature. Indeed, the ideal incubation temperature for many birds' eggs is about human body temperature, 98.6 degrees F. Almost all birds create the required temperature by sitting on the eggs and incubating them, often transferring heat via a temporarily bare area of abdominal skin called the "brood patch.”
• Egg temperature is regulated in response to changes in the temperature of the environment by varying the length of time that a parent bird sits on them or the tightness of the "sit." For instance, female House Wrens (which incubate without help from the males) sat on the eggs for periods averaging 14 minutes when the temperature was 59 degrees F (15 degrees C), but an average of only 7.5 minutes when it rose to 86 degrees F (30 degrees C) https://web.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Incubation.html

Try as I could— I could find no information on the flight speed of wrens but they are really really fast. From the second last to last picture was less than one second I was shooting  with a high shutter speed (all the way up to 1/8000 second) and it still got away on me!

Wrenning it

Singing its heart out

House wrens and spiders eggs — Juvenile Pileated Woodpecker beyond the screen July 20 2016

Yesterday afternoon shots: The lighting was better and I could get a full view of him— I caught the male house wren in the act of loading up the nest with Spider egg cases.  The female will choose one from several nests that the male starts for her. This morning there are still lots of comings and goings at so I think the nest is a go. I particularly enjoy the photo directly below— spider eggs in beak and all!

• "House Wrens nest inside tree holes and nest boxes. As the season progresses their nests can become infested with mites and other parasites that feed on the wren nestlings. Perhaps to fight this problem, wrens often add spider egg sacs into the materials they build their nests from. In lab studies, once the spiders hatched, they helped the wrens by devouring the nest parasites."  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Wren/lifehistory

Through the Screen Door

As I was working on today’s missive this morning I heard loud knocking at my side door. There, on the deck, was a juvenile pileated woodpecker testing the timber. I grabbed my iPhone and returned to find her on the BBQ. The adult female was dextrously helping herself to peanuts. So from the diminutive wrens to the hefty Pileated woodpeckers a lot goes on outside my screen doors. 

(Sorry I had to shoot through the screen but thought you would like to see it anyway.)

A House within a house— July 19

I am quite confident this is a house wren however if I am wrong I would love to be corrected. Learning is like that. 

Males build several nests then the female chooses which one she wants. I am happy she chose my house.

I have seen activity around my bird house but not conclusive residents until this morning when there were there definite directed to’s and fro’s. My first attempt at shooting my wonderful new neighbours were swiftly designated to the disposal bin. I tried shooting through a screen, and while that worked fine for the flicker it was abysmal for these wee ones so I set up my tripod, opened the door and when my new neighbour arrived I let the shutter fly. 

Thank you David Church for suggesting the subject name for this note today. I think it very clever. 

I saw the last robin fly this morning

I missed the departure of the middle one. It may have gone yesterday afternoon while I was out cavorting. Sure is dull at 9 Lock Rd. now. I am so glad I got the experience of shooting those robins!

Here is a flicker for us … I took it last week. It is a bit grainy because I took it through my screen door but in the absence of those wee robins it brings some consolation.

Robins July 16 —I watched the oldest fly off the nest this morning

I hated to see it go. It flew across the road and into the shrubbery beside 1 Blockhouse lane. I was surprised it flew so well. I have been reading that they hop out of the nest and parents lead them to shrubbery. Not this one! It is in a safe area I think. The parents aren’t at all upset so they must think it is in a good place. Lets hope it has a great life. 

Here are a couple from yesterday

And this is this morning.— July 16

Robins July 15

This morning fresh hot delicious coffee close by I did a little arm chair bird watching from my comfy  chair on my veranda. It was a lovely bug free way to take in the morning bird song  and to enjoy the activity of flycatchers flickers and robins not to mention a rose breasted grosbeak.  The robins will soon be leaving I expect. Today for the first time we get to see the mottled breast feathers of the juveniles. The female is at the nest in these shots. She is more slender and smaller than the male and she never takes her eyes off me!

From the ladder

From my arm chair!