Having a good flash is a must for any would-be photographer. This hole in the tree is actually a good eighteen feet or more above the ground! Thanks to a long lens and a very powerful flash, I was able to illuminate the hole to see if it had a critter in it. Sadly, there wasn’t. I was hoping to get another shot like this:

I’ve always wanted a chance to do better at this shot. This little guy lived in the tree in front of our church, and I took the photo shortly after I got my camera. At that time I hadn’t developed a steady hand and was also just learning how to work all the knobs and dials on the camera. Someday, however, I’m going to get my chance. I’ll be ready.

Remember those doves that I posted about a few days ago? Well, they appear to be doing better! The mom huddled atop her babies for a few days, and they are doing well. They’ve been hiding around the yard and eating from a plate of wild bird seed that we have left out for them. First we saw only the mom, then the mom and one of the little ones. I don’t know for sure what happened to the third. Now they’re all gone, presumably having moved on to someplace better. We did our part to help nurse the poor little birds along after they were blown out of their nest…now the rest is up to the normal course of nature.

Yeah, I know. Perhaps the worst, corniest music reference title I’ve come up with yet. Hopefully these little dove chicks don’t have to cry, though…despite a rocky start to their weekend. Saturday morning I discovered these two huddling in the grass, shivering and scared. I’m pretty sure they got knocked out of a tree on Friday, with all the wind that came through.

I grabbed a space heater and extension cord and got them warmed up pretty well. They seemed to really like the warmth, and quit shivering as well. I’m sure the sprinklers didn’t help that morning, either! Once we got them warmed up, we tried to figure out what to do with them. That’s when we looked up.

Their mom had arrived and was watching us nervously from above, sitting absolutely motionless. With the little birds’ temperature stabilized, we quickly packed up the heater and retreated.

A short while later, I ventured out into the yard and found mama bird cuddling her babies, still in the little divot in our yard. I picked up some wild bird food and placed a paper plate of it nearby, so she can grab some chow, and hoped for the best.

We’ve checked on them off and on throughout the weekend, and the mother bird seems intent on sticking by her little babies. They’re not that little, actually, which gives me hope that they’ll actually pull through. With the help of their attentive mama, they at least stand a chance. The countenance of these little birds has sure changed from when we found them huddling and scared in the grass.

They’re content to stay in that little divot, but now they’ve got their mom and the warmth and food she provides. She does venture away on occasion, but so far has returned every time. I looked after dark tonight to find her settled in atop her babies, wings spread to provide good cover. Hopefully this story will have a happy end, with the baby birds able to take off with their mommy soon. Maybe Prince would like to adopt them!

As a current city employee and a former state DOT employee, I’m entitled to make jokes about government work. That’s why I feel free–no, compelled to say that the ratio of supervisors to workers here is completely opposite of a government scenario. Jokingly, of course!

It doesn’t look like supervising this operation is a really keen job, either; it involves staring at four little duck butts! They are pretty cute, though. My little boy PJ was excited to see the ducks. We watched them eat for a little while, then moved on.

This is the view from one of the cooler parts of the new cat exhibit at the Dakota Zoo here in Bismarck. The tiger exhibit is finished, the tigers are laying around like cats do, and one of them decided to soak up the sun from atop the glass viewing portal.

This enclosure is cool in that you can look all around, and you have to duck to walk through a kiddie-sized tunnel to get to it. Naturally the kids love it, at least mine do. It’s just tall enough to push our stroller through without scraping my knuckles. If the cats aren’t doing anything exciting (let’s face, it…they’re CATS) the kids will probably like dashing around in the tunnels.

The snow leopard part of the “big cat” exhibit is still under construction, part of a campaign of expansion and enhancement at the zoo.

This is a great time of year to hit any small body of water and check out the dragonflies. I’m sure they love all those little annoying bugs that do so well in this type of weather. I think they eat mosquitoes…if that’s the case, they’ve got plenty of food available!

This year hasn’t been so good as 2006. That year I saw so many different types and colors of dragonflies and damselflies, it was amazing. Hopefully they come back in equal numbers sometimes soon; they’re pretty interesting to watch!

Chances are if you spend any time around the parks, diamonds, or zoo here in Bismarck, you’re going to see these little guys darting around. They especially like the grass at the Dakota Zoo, where they scavenge bits of food that fall out of reach of the animals. That’s where I spotted this little guy.

It is with great joy that I discovered an empty nest when I came home from work today. The four baby robins that were nesting above one of my motion sensor lights are out and about! In fact, I don’t know if they even return to the nest at this point. They’re all feet, have dull colors as natural camouflage, and are still being tutored on flying and pecking for their own food…but they’re out of the nest.

They still have those little white tufts of downy feathers and that downward tilt to their beak that makes them resemble grumpy old men! I spotted two of these little birdies but haven’t walked around enough to find the other two. We have so many trees here that I might never find them. I was going to mow the lawn tomorrow, but get to put that off so I don’t mistakenly find one with the mower.

Well, the nesting part of this story was a huge success. I’m glad I climbed up and took photos of their parents feeding them when I did; that time came and went pretty quickly! As a parent myself, I know just how that goes. At the moment we’re transferring videotapes of our little boys to DVD and it’s amazing to watch videos of PJ from only a year and a half ago, when he was a newborn. I don’t even want to think of what it’ll be like when our two boys leave the nest! I’m told that time is coming faster than we think.