Rain Gryphon

An interesting day, filled with things to do and see!


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A dead, gutted Shrew. Like all Shrews, he has those weird black teeth. He'd been lying in the yard for a day or two before I found him, I'm pretty sure. Dead Shrews are a not uncommon summer sight here. The birds get into dozens of fights every day, but with them it's largely stylized and restrained. The loser gives ground, and everyone is at peace again. With the Shrews, it's life and death. I may well have seen the Shrew who killed him too. Some time later I was sitting on the front step (sans camera, sadly), very quietly, and saw a movement down in the grass, which was a Shrew taking his chances to run quickly right past the end of my foot.


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I could hear this godawful fuss from the Starlings out front, and I wondered if someone's nest was being raided. I went to check, and found a baby Trash Panda. He was sitting by the base of the nest-filled tree where I saw the locust shells last autumn. My initial fear was that he was ill, but after watching him for a bit I decided that he was just out in the daytime for whatever reason (probably being young and a dumbass). I think he's just about weaning age, so may just have been out exploring. He almost got run over crossing the road back to the abandoned house (where I suspect he and his sibs live), and then later I saw him again, or another just like him, by the brushpile in back.


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The majestic Toad. He was sitting in back beneath the Sparrow colony. He has a certain self-assured presence. I just about stepped on him going back to check on the Sparrows, but he hopped at the last second.

As well, I got part of my container Tomatoes planted, and put some new Hens and Chicks into this weird-looking Mexican pot, with little sort of "balconies" on the side for the offspring to take root in.

Chef Boyardee's canned pizza sauce makes an excellent instant tomato soup, especially if you like oregano. Bizarrely enough, it's cheaper than Campbell's, too. For some reason, I'd been using Campbell's and adding oregano and red pepper, until the little light bulb finally went on.

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On my way out back to top up the seed tube earlier, I found a dead shrew almost below the Sparrow colony. I thought at first that his head was missing^1, but his spine's been bitten through, and the head is folded under the body. You can see how his upper back was pretty much skinned in the process, with his ribs showing. He's pretty obviously lost a territorial battle. Unlike most birds, shrews don't do the stylized dominance battles where the loser just submits and leaves unhurt.

Strangely enough, I found a dead shrew last Fourth of July too, with his throat torn out. In keeping with the spirit of the day, I blew that one up with fireworks.

^1 And I was having real trouble imagining who would take the head, but leave all the rest of the meat lie there for the ants. Happy day for the ants, certainly.

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The Sparrow babies in the D box, as they were yesterday mid-day. The way it's mounted I couldn't really get a direct look inside, so had to use a mirror. I can see three hatchlings and one egg. I didn't really want to poke around too much in the nest, so there may be more I didn't see. They're maybe a day or two old. They change really fast at that age. I'm not going to inspect the box today, as it's going to rain, and I don't want to drive mom and dad away. I'll prolly have another look tomorrow. If the egg hasn't hatched by then, I'll probably remove it. Don't want a rotten egg breaking inside the nest.

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A general view of the Sparrow colony. D is the far-right box.

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The E box a few days back, showing how the Wrens just built over the top of the Sparrows' nest. This is away from the other boxes, among a little grove of trees. I put it up last spring really for the Bluebirds. They may have scouted if briefly last spring, but then the Wrens took it over and raised a family. Come the fall, I cleaned out the abandoned Wrens' nest, then a Sparrow hen claimed it for a winter home, and lived in it through March at least. It seemed abandoned for a bit in early summer, then Sparrows built in it again, and were sitting five eggs, before the Wrens took it back.

You can see really three nests here - the bottom with the very fine grass is the Sparrow hen's winter nest. Over that, the looser grass is the bottom of the breeding pair of Sparrows' nest. Sparrows pretty well fill the box with grass and feathers, with a cavity in the middle, but the Wrens removed the top part of the nest. Lastly, the sticks are the Wrens's nest proper, such as it is. I don't think they'll finish it, but I may be wrong.