Summer is Winding Down

It is still officially summer and that is what it feels like outside. It isn't that it is so warm (high 80's), it's that it is just soupy. I truly do not care this. So, I am really looking forward to the autumn. I can honestly say that I miss cool nights and mornings. With all of that aside, however, it has been a pretty reasonable summer. Sure, we have had some very warm days but we have also had very pleasant days as well. There were fewer of those mornings with heavy, steamy fog than last year. For that we are grateful. We haven't been out and about as much this summer as last but we have enjoyed the concerts in the park and being involved with some of the Milton Lions Club activities. This picture is of several of the members at the end of a busy day on August 23. Running the Milton Clipper Express is a favorite activity. That day the club also sold funnel cakes and had a car raffle table set up in the park for one of the annual town activities, Bargains on the Broadkill.

There will be two more concerts and then we put the train away until May. I love projects like this because of the camaraderie of the members and most of all for the joy that they bring to young and old. The Carousel in Missoula, MT was also such a project.

Update: On a sadder note, our lovely nest of three beautiful blue eggs was abandoned. I am pretty sure that they are robin eggs and it was about the time of that post when I last saw any robins in our vicinity. The nest and the eggs appeared very late in the season. There would not have been much time for little ones to mature.

New Residents

Our new residents, I am not sure what type, have really set up home now. I told Bill earlier that I think the bird is pretty small but it certainly has a loud song in the afternoon. In fact, it sounds almost as if it is in the entryway. Besides, the reconfiguration of the wreath and the mud on the door, every day there are little berries left on the porch. When Bill got home this afternoon he swept them and then got the ladder out to check inside the nest again. This time he discovered three blue eggs.

Oh my, I guess it will stay for the time being.

Not Quite Sure What to Do?

This is a close-up of the summertime wreath I made last year and put again this year. I made some needed repairs when I put it up a few weeks ago but then I started to notice that things that were solidly anchored were starting to dangle, had dropped off or were completely missing. It was the vicious wind we have been having I thought. But, I also had this funky feeling that perhaps one of the birds of the neighborhood might be thieving. My suspicions were confirmed late last week. I went out early for an appointment and was taken aback by more debris than usual following a thunderstorm. I went down the steps and turned around to look at the door and sure enough there was a bird's nest on the wreath. Why I had not noticed before I can't say. But, in the days from when I first became curious to the confirmation some bird has been very busy. In the last day or two of construction a muddy mess also showed up on the door.

The mud has been cleaned off of the door. There are no eggs in the nest. We have not seen the resident. However, there is evidence of nest maintenance each morning. Everything on the wreath is now askew and droopy. It's a nice little nest. Do let stay for a few more weeks or do I take it down?