Birds and the Bee

This morning I went outside for my daily "water my garden but still kill it" ritual. (I have a brown thumb, everything I have been growing seems to be dying. Or just not growing from seed.) And I was in for a small treat.

As I watered the watermelon plants I noticed a bee still in the flower. Cool! What a great photo opportunity! I haven't been catching the pollination in action this year. But then I noticed the bee was not moving. He was slowly dying. How sad. Well, he died doing what he loves.

Then I noticed my dog, Maggy, watching a mockingbird. The bird was yapping and squawking so much I had to see what the issue was. I looked into my neighbor's yard and there it was-a baby mocking bird. And as I did that my neighbor's dog, Ty, attacked it. My neighbor was outside also so we stopped him and checked on the little fellow. (The picture is to the left.) I will get an update later from my neighbor if the chick is fine.

Last year at this time, my dog was next door visiting her buddy, Ty, when she found and proceeded to half mutilate a baby mocking bird. My neighbor had to place it in a plastic zip look to put it out of its misery. So this year we have been on high alert for mockingbird chicks. Apparently, the mockingbird chicks fall out of the nest when they are ready to fly making it so much easier for ground predators, i.e. Ty and Maggy, to catch the babies. The perps are seen in a picture to the left. They look innocent but they true deviants when it comes to chicks.

On another note. Back on Earth Day I wrote about the city of San Jose, CA welcoming 3 peregrine falcons chicks to their city hall roof. Sadly on June 17th one of the falcon chicks, Cielo, was found dead. Apparently the bird ran into a building. There are still 2 other falcon chicks, Meyye and Mercury, that seem to be doing well and ready to leave the nest some time this summer.