Fish, Hummers, Wasp & Chick-pic

In the time since my last Frog-Blog post I've seen some things I have not seen before. Nothing earth shak'n or worthy of the evening news but still, new to me.

Just before dawn I was gazing out the window at the backyard. Erupting from the depths of the skimmer pond, like a great white shark, was a leaping gold fish. No doubt on the hunt to feed it's ravenous appetite.  One can never be too careful around these vicious creatures when they are in a feeding frenzy. I've never seen them jump out of the water but this guy did... with feeling. I hope he got his bug.

The wasp nest and it's construction I've not seen before or at least don't remember. I suppose it could be a hornet nest or something similar to a wasp. It was on the stucco ceiling of our entry... about 12 feet off the ground. The nest was about 2.5 inches across and  about 2 inches deep. Obviously it was inhabited by a yellow and black insect that would make me run if it wanted to by just buzzing me. I may claim "I ain't scared," but I'm also not brave.

Here is a little movie I took that shows this busy creature doing whatever they do inside their nest.

Another thing I haven't see before was the swimming humming bird. This little hummer would come to the surface of the pond and skim across with his belly in the water.  Reminded me of one of those sea planes. Every time I tried to get a picture of this the little guy would take-off (pun intended).  It's done this repeatedly over the past 3 or 4 days.

This morning the sea-hummer was back but this time it landed in the waterfall... and stayed there. I snapped a couple of blurry pictures and a very quick video. Sorry about the quality but it is what it is. Don't blink!

Now our daily chick-pics.

Can you believe the difference between yesterday and today? They are alert and the guy at the top of the picture
is filling in nicely.  No doubt this will be the first one to fledge.

Just a closer look at our babies. The middle one has some feather action going on by it's right eye. 

Moving in yet closer. You can clearly see the feathers coming out of the shaft and how they will cover and protect
the birds once it fills in.  They have been testing their wings a bit and preening... and pooping a lot.

This picture I put in because it's a better shot of the top bird who appears to be the most mature.  Lots of his fuzziness
is gone. By the time they fledge the hairs will mostly be gone but there will probably be some over their eyes. 

Mom and dad just come by to feed them and don't spend much time at all near the nest.

This sure has been fun to watch this tiny fragment of spring renewal.  It certainly gets very dynamic when you consider what is occurring this very moment around the world.

Stay tuned.

Whoohoo!!!