The breaking day

I wake while others sleep, but do not wake slowly. Once i have fallen out of dreams, i am immediately, fully awake. Maybe there is a minute of sitting on the side of the bed, focusing my eyes, but it is only posturing.

When last we left, we were bound for Chicago on Thanksgiving vacation. Now, back at work, things are business as usual. My employer announced huge layoffs recently (in good company there, as employers everywhere are doing daily now). There is no certainty, only a bit of anhedonia at CoH.

Some unseasonably warm weather has blessed the locale. Warm winter days are possibly my favoritest season. You have beautiful, blistering vistas, but none of the pesky, biting bugs that mar the warm summer months. My hiking companion and i visited Knob Noster as well as more local spots which during the summer are almost inhabitable.

A deep forest trail is apparently the best place to spot a stealth bomber. They fly out of a miltary base adjacent the park, going, i guess, to iraq or afghanistan.

There is no particular theme here today. Just a general update before the world's alarm clock goes off.

Sunday Nature Walk

Today was warm but not oppressive, so we went to Heritage Park in Olathe, KS, which turned out to be quite a good spot. We found a geocache that had previously eluded us, spotted turtles and what I have narrowed down to some sort of Heron, and discovered paddle boats that were, unfortunately, out of season.

A few highlights have been posted over at my flickr site. Definitive identification of the bird would be most welcome. Bonus points for the rather large spider, which was prepping it's meals for the next few days when we spotted her.

A bird on the deck

A little while ago, i noticed a small bird flying up to the door sill going out onto my deck. I remarked upon it, but otherwise took little notice.

Well yesterday, when i stepped out in the morning to check the weather, this bird was inbound and, spotting me, bore towards me in flight carrying worms in her mouth. When i failed to flee, she abated and repaired to the tree of the north end of the deck.

Immediately I realized that this bird, which had for some days been alighting above my door, had the while been nesting and was now returning with food for her young hatchling. Indeed, while I stood at the south end of the deck and watched, a mere chick cried out, head just breaching the top of the nest, while his mother perched not five feet away, watching me instead to determine my intentions.

Seeing now this intruder upon her home, she left off her errand, instead crossing the porch to fly at me, only to turn and land on a step at ground level below. After a few more feints, hoping to scare me off, she returned to the tree still holding the worms. As i failed to relent, simply standing at the far end of the deck, she made a dash for the nest, dropping the serving straight down the chick's throat.

While i snuck back inside to retrieve my camera, she made another foray. I returned camera in hand and waited for her to come with more worms. What a racket the child made, in a rougher and more shrill cry than his family generally makes in song.

Perhaps my naturalist readers can educate me as to the manner of bird nesting here. I could only observe this summer ritual and record what i could with my amateur tools. The bird is brown-coated with a orange belly and yellow beak. They're very common in this area and are the size of a child's fist. I own i took more pictures than would easily be shown here. The rest can be found in an album i put onto facebook.

As a bonus for my patience, while the feathery mother was off hunting, a chipmunk passed just below, stopping on the retaining wall steps before jetting down a hole in the hillside.