ALPHABE-THURSDAY..."N" as in NEST

Class is in session and it's time again for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Miss Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." This week's assignment is the letter N. For a list of my fellow classmates and to see their assignments head over to Miss Jenny's blog.

Before I begin let me apologize for not meeting everyone in class last week. I think I got to all the blogs except for the last ten or so when I just ran out of time. I had a brain storm. (UH-OH!) I think what I'll do this week is once Miss Jenny closes down Linky (AKA McLinky) I'll read from the bottom of the list up. Until then I'll take them in order from the top. Sounds like a plan...huh?




I kind of knew what I wanted to do for the letter N a while back. I'm fascinated with NESTS. I've been watching the squirrels in the backyard build their NESTS. What a mess they make. They're very fussy and only use live twigs. And only certain twigs will do. I don't think they like leaves either. Whatever materials they find unsuitable come sailing down to the ground. On more than one occasion I've been hit in the heat with their rejects. It seems to take them about two weeks to complete a NEST. Here's the latest NEST in our backyard:





This is what's directly below the NEST.

Trust me...don't sit on those chairs until you check them first. There's a lot more than twigs and leaves that come down.




One of my favorite places to go in Texas is Brazos Bend State Park. There's camping, fishing, hiking, alligators, poisonous snakes, and assorted wildlife. I'm not crazy about camping, fishing or poisonous snakes, but I enjoy hiking and seeing alligators and other wildlife.

This time of year the alligators are mating. If you went now you would hear the males making this loud bellowing sound. After mating the females build huge NESTS and eventually lay their eggs...between 20 and 70. They stay nearby to protect the eggs from raccoons, possums, skunks, etc. At Brazos Bend they fence off the NESTS along the hiking trails with temporary fencing to keep people away. Here's a picture of an alligator with her NEST that I found online.


What I find amazing is that out of all those eggs possibly one or two alligators will make it to adulthood. Although the mother stays nearby a lot of them still get eaten by male alligators, heron, etc. (I believe alligators are the only reptiles that kind of take care of their young.)

One year we visited Brazos Bend around Labor Day weekend. The eggs in one of the NESTS were hatching. We stood on the opposite side of the waterway and watched from a safe distance. As the eggs hatched the baby alligators would chirp like birds. The mother would hear them, pick them up in her mouth, and take them down to the water. Because her eyes are on the side of her head she couldn't see straight ahead. Sometimes she'd get down to the water and all she had was a stick. Poor thing. Back up to the NEST she'd go. We watched for over an hour and when we left she was still bringing babies down to the water. Of course, I didn't have my camera that day!

I did find this You Tube video of an alligator egg hatching and the mother bringing it to the water. It's only a little over a minute long, but shows exactly what I'm talking about.




Miss Jenny...may I be excused?

Whoops! I had to go back and edit and republish my post because I forgot to tell you about the Peregrine Falcons NESTING on top of an office building in Jersey City, NJ. I've been following them for quite a few years. It's very interesting and every year something seems to happen. It's dangerous for birds to be living in such an urban environment. One year the male was found on the sidewalk with an injured wing and was moved to a bird sanctuary. Another male joined the female and helped her care for the babies. Sometimes the babies are injured or killed learning to fly. Right now there are four eggs and I check in on them daily. Here's the link:

http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/peregrinecam/

And be sure to read the NESTBOX NEWS. I'm from New Jersey originally and I guess that's why I enjoy watching these birds each year.

SO SAD...

Yesterday morning I went out to the garage and found an injured baby possum on the floor. He was raising his head and putting it back down, but he didn't appear able to walk. There were spots of blood on the floor and I surmised that he probably had fallen off a beam to the hard concrete floor.

Last weekend during a torrential downpour my husband had spotted a large possum up there. Possums don't hurt anything and we come from the live and let live school of life, so we chose to ignore him/her and let it be. Now I suspected that the grown possum was this little guy's mom. I had an appointment and assumed the baby was almost dead, so I reluctantly closed the door and left.

When I arrived home I checked the garage for a body and there he/she was walking around a little in circles. A big improvement in four hours. My son noticed that his one eye was badly injured and almost gone. So, we put him in a cat carrier and drove to the Wildlife Rehab. Center in Houston.

Sadly, the lady thought he probably wouldn't make it, but at least he'd have a peaceful ending there. She suspected he had more serious injuries that weren't as visible as the eye, but a veterinarian was with him when we left. Poor little thing. I hate to see injured animals.

JERSEY FALCONS

Some years back I read about a couple of Peregrine Falcons that nest on top of a building in Jersey City, NJ. I was intrigued and have been following them ever since. (I am a Jersey girl at heart.)

Within the last week the female has laid four eggs. At least it looks like four to me. Anyway, check out the site and be sure and read the Nest Box News.

http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/peregrinecam/

It's exciting when the eggs start hatching, but every year there's some kind of disaster. I believe it was last year that only one baby survived. The site is maintained by the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife.

I feel like a grandmother when the eggs start hatching. :)

OUR LITTLE FRIEND...

He's been with us for probably a year now. I kind of hoped he'd move on when Hurricane Ike came through, but he rode out the storm in the comfort of his home beneath our deck. In the past, my husband would occasionally run into him when he took the dog out first thing in the morning.

I've always believed that we should make an effort to coexist with the creatures that claimed this land long before we were here. I did have to draw the line with the rats that were feeding at our bird feeder when one decided to come inside. Because of him we no longer put out bird seed for the backyard wildlife. I just can't coexist with rats.

However, I was willing to coexist with our nocturnal friend. I knew he was there, but I didn't have to see him. In the last couple of weeks he's begun to violate the nocturnal rule. It seems he's decided on a snack before bed in the morning and I've been running into him in the backyard between 8:30 and 9:30 AM. We've had some rain and the ground is soft. He's been digging holes all over the yard. We've tried having a regular lawn with St. Augustine grass, but because of all the shade the warm weather grass doesn't grow and it's too hot for something like Fescue. So, I've been letting the monkey grass, violets, and weeds fill in the yard. Unfortunately, our little friend must spend the entire night digging everything up.

I think he's kind of cute and I've named him Tex.

It must be getting terribly crowded under our deck. Our feral cat and a couple of the neighborhood cats like to hang out under there. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's a possum or two under there too. Here's MaMa peeking out.

Of course, poor Sophie is going crazy. She knows Tex is under there. She's chased him back under a couple of times. He'll run under the deck and then he sticks his head out to see if she's still there. She wouldn't hurt him. She just enjoys the chase.

I've gone online and read all about humane trapping, discouraging him with moth balls, putting down something to kill the bugs that he eats, etc. The problem is that I don't want to do anything that would harm MaMa or drive her away. So, we've decided to welcome Tex to the family and try not to break an ankle in the backyard.

A WALK IN THE PARK

This morning I had to drop Zoom off at the Veterinarian to be spayed, so I decided to walk in the park instead of the mall. It was a little chilly (in the 50's), but bright and sunny. I thought some of you that have been dealing with ice and snow this winter might enjoy seeing some flowers.

This park has some of the fatest squirrels I've ever seen. They're used to begging for food and can get pretty bold at times.
I'm looking straight down at him in this picture and he's sniffing the toe of my shoe. I was afraid he was going to start climbing my leg and I had no food to offer him.
The park was closed for a while after Hurricane Ike and they're still working on clean up. Some of the trails were closed.


Even the rest rooms still had a FEMA blue roof. You just can't avoid them. :)
There was an alternative, but since I don't like the alternative I headed home.
But I did take one last picture. I like seeing Spanish Moss hanging down in the trees. It reminds me of Florida, but we've got it here too.