I am worried about a yard resident I have not seen for a few weeks. I think of this resident as Little Mother and, until recently, I have seen her every day when I look out my big kitchen window. We have a little family of crows consisting of an adult female and her one, or some years two, offspring, that has been using this yard as home. An observer can always tell by behavior which of the three crows is mother, which is baby and which is in-between because the baby is beseeching mother to feed it, mother is feeding baby and in-between is feeding self. Little Mother is also distinctive in that she has feather ruffles at the top of her legs and her offspring are very sleek.
I don’t remember when it became obvious to me that this little mother had made our yard home base, but it has been many years. She is very messy in our bird baths as she brings all the human food she finds to the bath to wash/soak it and eat. Little mother brings bread, crackers, chicken bones, food wrappers, plus bits and pieces of mystery things. When she is especially successful with her foraging, I must scrub and rinse the bird baths daily to keep the water healthy for the other visitors and the garbage away from our dog. The native plants in our yard will support a good variety of the natural bird food of insects, fruit and nectar, so a clean water source is kind of like that nice big pitcher of cold water that our local restaurant is so kind to leave at our table when we dine; so very refreshing and satisfying.
Little Mother has always been a hard working single mother with a youngster in tow that she is either feeding or teaching how to “toss the duff”. The family will walk through an area, a foot or two apart, stop, toss some leaves or cedar duff to expose something tasty, sometimes catching a nibble, then walking a few more steps and doing this over and over covering one area then another, everyday.
The last few weeks I have not seen her, just her last year’s sleek offspring that visits the baths and tosses the duff alone. The drinking water is cleaner, but not a trade-off I would choose.
Juncos have usually nested in our front yard; I have no idea where. I just know I have, in past springs, gotten scolded as only a 5 inch bird can, whenever I worked in the front yard. This year is different in that I think a pair of Towhees is nesting in the front yard and the Juncos have moved to the backyard! Now, no matter where I am working I am being scolded.
Speaking of nesting, an alert citizen, mentioned last week she had seen a bunch of twigs on top of one of the Nathan Hale light stands and asked if we had seen it and if we knew what might be nesting there. The answer was no and no, but on Tuesday I saw two large birds circle and descend, one after the other to the nest, tussle a bit, then settle in for a quiet sit. The bright sun and distance did not allow me to identify the pair, but maybe another alert citizen has had a good look at the nest’s occupants and can identify them for us. Osprey?
Seattle Life in the Yard 