Part Two

I felt it was only right to feature the female Tree Swallow today; she seems to have taken a dim view of me and my camera.  If you compare her to yesterday's male, you can see the difference in their plumage - his blue is brilliant whereas hers is muted and mixed in with tones of gray.  Both beautiful, but different.

My big surprise was discovering two eggs in the nest box.  I think there must have been one egg in it yesterday, carefully obscured with the soft white feathers; today there were clearly two, mostly hidden.  Most of the time one or the other parent is on the box, or inside at the entry hole, guarding against all comers.  He sits on the front of the box, where the roof overhangs the opening; she sits on the back.  I'm so thrilled to have them nesting right outside our dining room window.

In other nest news, the bluebird eggs are hatching today, right on schedule.  Both parents hovered high above my head when I checked the box today but I got one quick and rather blurry shot clearly showing 3 little squiggly blobs and one egg.  I will check again tomorrow to make sure the last egg hatched.  

Had a great visit with Peg last night.  It was so good to give her a big hug, and to have time to just catch up.  She is headed into the City this evening to have dinner with other bestie, Kura.  They are headed to Greece on a cruise next month, which I'm sure will be great fun.  

The day started drizzly, but now the sun is out which is nice after a day of rain.  Tomorrow looks like another mostly dry day before more rain moves in on Saturday - just in time for a small family gathering and barbecue.  Oh well.  

xoxo
Debbi