Tuesday, April 28, 2020

The Stodgy Robin Society

Hello everybody! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent doggie reporter 
Chester L. W. Spaniel.


In earlier reports, I mentioned that there's a robin's nest in the yew bushes in front of our living room windows. The mother robin is named Lady Ruby Star-Feathersworth, and the father robin is named Lord Fitzgerald Feathersworth. Robins tend to have long, fancy names when they belong to the Stodgy Robin Society. They hop around the yard in a stately fashion, and are able to procure the best real estate choices in which to build their nests. While the mother robin sits on the eggs, the father sings in the tree tops nearby and fends off all intruders. 

Lady Ruby Star-Feathersworth

Last Friday we showed you a picture of the first baby robin in Lady Ruby's nest. Today, this baby has more than doubled in size! Also note, the second egg still hasn't hatched.

Baby robin as yet unnamed, and egg.


Meanwhile, in the backyard, on the other side the fence, another robin has made her nest in one of the scraggly arbor vitae bushes. We see her coming and going, but would need a ladder in order to take pictures of this nest. Her name is Mrs. Thelma Leaf-Hoppinlooper. Her husband is Sir Robin (the brave) Hoppinlooper. They get hassled all day long by the grackles who also live in the arbor vitae bushes nearby. This robin pair are not as not nearly as dignified as their snobby counterparts in the front yard! In fact, we've seen them in some pretty wild scraps with the grackles. They have been known to attack Lord and Lady Feathersworth too. But they seem to have had some success in child rearing. We see Mrs. Leaf-Hoppinlooper bringing beaks full of worms to the nest.

Arbor Vitae Heights birdie apartments.


So I was wondering what the names of all these baby robins might be. I've been listening to the father robins singing, and have a theory that in their songs are the names of their offspring. It's sometimes hard to make them out, though.


In the front yard Lord Feathersworth sings: cheerio-cheerio-romeo-juliet! So maybe his two babies will be named Romeo and Juliet (if the second egg hatches, that is.)


In the back yard, Sir Hoppinlooper sings: toodle-ooo toodle-ooo-kangaroo-vindaloo …


Say what??


Crazy birdies!

Friday, April 24, 2020

Never Too Late For Earth Day!

Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your intrepid doggie reporter 
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


My ghostwriter had to work the past couple days, so we didn't get to do our annual Earth Day report. But today we went outside in the back yard to check on the state of the earth there. Because of all the cold weather and rain and snow, the ground was kind of wet, and we only saw a few little worms when we looked under the rocks.

I smell worms under this rock …

But there were lots of things growing.







We hoped it would be a sunny day. 


But first thing in the morning the clouds rolled in. 


And it's been overcast since.

Blah!

We did get one big surprise, though. 


One of Lady Ruby Star-Feathersworth's eggs hatched. She sat on the edge of the roof and screamed at us, and clacked her beak impatiently while we took a quick picture. 


Her husband, Lord Fitzgerald Feathersworth sat in the maple tree nearby and screeched at us too. We'll leave them alone for the rest of the day. Maybe tomorrow, ghostwriter will have a quick peek to see if the other egg hatches too. 


We can't wait to find out what the two youngsters' names are!



Wednesday, April 15, 2020

A Day of Flowers, Robins, and Snow

Hello everyone. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent doggie investigative reporter 
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


Today I got a chance to look around in the front yard. 


I actually found some flowers that were blooming despite the cold windy weather. My ghostwriter said it was snowing real hard when she was driving home last night after work. It all melted when it hit the ground. Today it was snowing on and off too! But we have flowers!!!






There were plants growing everywhere I looked!


Check out this little sweet woodruff coming up through a hole in the wood.


Wow!


In other news, we suspected there was a bird nest somewhere in the yew bushes in front of our living room windows. Here it is!


The mother robin, Lady Ruby Star-Feathersworth, was sitting on the nest. She practically exploded out of the bush when we got too close!


She flew up to the edge of the roof and screamed at us until we left. Hopefully we'll be able to get photos of the babies over the next few weeks if we're real careful.


Later, Dad rolled the grill out of the garage and cooked some steaks. Yum!


 Soon after that, it clouded up …



… and it started snowing again!


Here's one of our last photos before it got dark:


I wonder if it will melt by morning?


We'll just have to wait and see. Stay tuned to The Daily Bone.







10:15pm. We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this important update. It  finally stopped snowing. As you can see, there is snow on the grass and tree.


Will it still be there in the morning? Only time will tell! We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

5 loveable things about robins


Friday, April 10, 2020

Snow In The Morning

Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


As you can see, there is snow on the ground. 


Yes, it was coming down like crazy when we woke up this morning! 


But now it's starting to melt. 


To my blogger friends, I hope to catch up on reading your posts from the past few days tomorrow. My ghostwriter had to work almost every day this week at the front lines of the nursing home on evening shift, and it has been insane, crazy, busy! 


She didn't want to post another picture of herself in PPE gear, so here's a picture she took looking out the window of the break room from  yesterday afternoon. 


She's going to work again today.


Harumph!