Happy Summer!

How you are celebrating the first day of summer? Cho Cho wants to know!

Ready, Set.....

Ready, set, flap your wings! We were for sure these birdies were going to fledge today! Instead they just kept teasing us by practicing flapping their wings and pecking at insects on the deck awning!

any day now!

We were watching the blue jays this morning and two of the babies were stretching their wings, flapping them at the edge of the nest. Their wings were blue and white. The other three babies are still more gray and fuzzy so they look to be a few days behind. Here they are awake with Mama. The one of the right is gray and fuzzy, but the tall one in the back is one of the two that look ready to fledge (in my complete nonexpert opinion)! And, also here Ms. Cho standing guard (the nest is on top of the light near the wind chimes). Also, a few more views of the brood!

Feed me!

The baby blue jays are growing up fast, and their parents are becoming super protective. Speedracer is going to go out in full armor (bike helmet, lab safety goggles, etc.) to get some better footage. If you come even within 5 feet mama or papa will buzz you! We read that blue jay babies fledge at about 21 days but that time period can be longer if the brood is large (we have 5) and if weather/feeding conditions are not good. The babies on our deck hatched on May 30th, so they are about 12 days old now. We have been putting some whole peanuts with shells out on the deck that the mama and papa seem to like. Cho Cho really does keep watch. Click on the arrows in the right hand corner to get a full screen view (it is a little blurry - sorry!).

The Three S's

Spit
Suck
Strut

This is what Genna & Bee taught us yesterday on our nature walk, here in Winchester. We found a honey suckle vine, and decided to taste the drops of honey. Bee & Genna really liked this, and must have picked about a hundred of them, and perfected the technique. First you bite off and spit out the little green part. Then you suck the drop of honey. Then you strut your goodness. The technique was enjoyed by all!

We've got birdies

All five eggs hatched over the weekend, and we've got the evidence here. First is a movie shot when four of the five eggs had hatched.

The next day we tried again and the last egg had hatched.

Papa bird didn't get too far away from me while I was shooting movies...

Jamestown, ND

We made it to Jamestown, North Dakota, or actually a few miles west of it. So glad to be done with Minnesota! May saw 155 miles of running through lots of rain and warmer temps. For Speedracer it meant running in Canada while for me i got a few miles down in the desert. That gives us 987 miles on the year. Just 18.5 away to the halfway mark! Of course the highlight of those 155 miles were the 26.2 we ran in Traverse City this past weekend. We highly recommend the Bayshore marathon to anyone interested. It is incredibly scenic, small, and very well organized. Water and gatorade station about every 1.5 miles, kind volunteers, and all around goodness. Today (June 1) is also National Running Day! So get those shoes on and get out there, even if just for a short bit. It's kind of exciting to have the first post marathon run be on national running day. It will be a short 4 miler for sure as we'e both still a bit sore, but nice nonetheless.