Just the facts, lady, just the facts

I love the tiny, amazing details of nature.

Nothing speaks to me of God as loudly 

as the brilliant design of every living thing.

Here are a few facts 

about solitary bees, Masons mostly, but others as well, that I found particularly irresistible. 

75% of bees are solitary.  Solitary means each bee tends to its own brood.

There is no Queen. There are no workers. They do not live in hives nor do solitary bees make honey. They do not swarm.  

They are harmless and non-aggressive.

Solitary bees are docile, gentle natives of the United States and Canada.

(I think John Lennon could have written song lyrics with this information.)

There are over 1,600 species of bees in California alone.

Over 4,000 species in the United States. The honeybee is not native to the United States. It was brought here from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

At night, male solitary bees will sleep on plant stems, under

leaves, or in flowers. Females may return to their nest to spend the 

night constructing new tunnels and brood chambers.

(A man may work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done!)

Individual pheromones help the bees identify their own nesting holes.

Female destined eggs are laid first, in the back of the nest/tube. The eggs closest to the entrance hole are males: thus the males are the first to emerge in the spring. 

Outside of the nest, the males wait for the females.  As the ladies

appear, the males mate with them.  The female mates only once, and then releases the stored sperm as she needs it. 

Bees encounter nest predation from birds, spiders, and other insects...wasps. If the nest is plundered, the larvae/pupae closest to the entrance will be eaten first. Females are more important to the reproduction of the species. Thus the males are a barrier protecting the females. This increases the survival and fitness of the species. 

Ground nesters need bare dirt. 60 -70% of native California bees dig tunnels into the soil and provision a series of nest cells.  We obstruct ground nesting bees with mulch or even worse, black plastic.

Bees need to warm up to 80 degrees for their wings to function. Mason bees' black bodies can soak up heat even when the air temperature is only 58 - 64 degrees.

One fast flying Mason bee is as efficient in pollinating as 100 honey bees!

The Mason bee has long antennae and black furry legs. They are small bees that don't look like "bees" as we normally think of them.  What cute antennae!

It's easy to enhance bee habitat on your property.
I suppose a good mantra would be
"Let it be."
(I've definitely got a Beatles songbook playing in my head today.) 
Don't be so fastidious in the garden.
Minimize lawn or mow less often.
Tolerate dandelions. (This is one that I need to work on.)

ALSO
A bee friendly yard has a lot purple, blue and yellow flowers.
These are the most attractive colors to bees.
Provide water and a mud source.
Plant a mix of flower shapes to accommodate 
different bee tongue lengths. Awww.
Plant native perennial plants.

Native bees.
Wild bees.
Solitary bees.
"All You Need Is Love".
Love is All You Need...

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

Mason bee and Marriage Pickle

Righty-o,

where did I leave off?

Oh yes,

Solitary Bees.

But before I go into the black and white information about the bees themselves, let me share my dilemma.  A little gray area of life.

The type of Mason bee house that Duke lovingly took 15 days to make for me for my birthday is a death sentence for some Mason bees. 

Yes, in the wild the bees find just this type of dwelling to lay their eggs in.  Long holes.  Preferably, 5/16" in diameter and about 4" long. (Albeit, not grouped for human interests.) 

BUT...

if you, me or you, is hoping to increase the population of these brilliant pollinators, the beautiful type of house Duke built is not helping.

The problem is POLLEN MITES.  Mites, the curse of the world.

As I understand it, pollen mites can harbor in solid wood holes.

In the spring the female Mason bee, aka Orchard bee, collects a pea-size ball of pollen and nectar, which is gathered together within a channel...

natural or man-made.

A single egg is laid on top of this pearl.

Mrs. Osmia then builds a wall using mud, as a plaster, for sealing the nest.

The same bee goes off to collect more pollen to repeat the process.

Pollen ball. Egg. Wall. Pollen ball. Egg. Wall. Pollen ball. Egg. Wall...

until the tube is filled with eggs, provisioned with a nutritious mix of pollen and nectar.  Each tiny egg hatches and the larvae quickly begins to develop by eating the yummy food mama bee left for it.

During the summer, cocoons are spun and the larvae then pupates for the next 9 months. 

Are you still with me?

My problem is about to emerge. 

Come spring time, when the fruit trees' flowers start opening like popcorn, the adults are ready to leave their brood chambers.

If pollen mites have taken up residence inside of the chambers, trouble awaits. As the bee crawls out of the tunnel rubbing along passed them, the mites will cling to its wings. The bee is looking to begin its brief 6 - 10 weeks as an adult bee, but because of the mites on its wings, it cannot fly. The bees drop to the ground and die.

People who are "raising" Mason bees use either cardboard tubes, made and sold for this purpose, or they will make parchment paper liners for inside the man-drilled burrows.

 This is how pollen mites are controlled.

In the fall, the tubes or paper liners are removed from the housing and opened up. The cocoons are inspected for mites. If there are any present, they are brushed off, thus protecting the bee wings come spring. 

The cocoons are then stored in a cool dry place until spring.  Some people store them in their refrigerator. When the temperature warms and blossoms pop, the cocoons are set out. The bees will emerge and the process begins again.

From what I have read and seen on YouTube, the type of house Duke built isn't  conducive to the monitoring of pollen mites. And do I even want to be dealing with them? 

Yet, I certainly don't want to encourage bees to nest en-mass, if it is going to be a potential a death warrant for them.

The type of housing that is compatible to cardboard tubes or parchment liners

is constructed differently, i.e., the back comes off and the holes are drilled straight through, for access from the back of the condo for tube insertion and removal. (The chambers in my gift are only open in the front. I'm not sure if I would be able to get the liners out.)

I casually mentioned the mite problem to Duke and he's not buying it. 

Do I hang the Mason bee house and let nature take its course?

Do I try to line the holes with parchment paper liners and deal with any mites there might be? 

What is more important here? Accepting the gift given to me by my loving, sensitive husband of 47 years, without worrying about the bees that might die at the start of their adult life OR do I line the holes and deal with the possible mite problem and possible hurt feelings?

Marriage...and Nature...what a trip!

This post is already long enough. 

Black and white facts later this week.

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

Solitary bee condo

If Mason bees could read 

(and actually used part of their short 6-10 week lifespan doing so),

I would place this ad in the OSMIA Gazette:

_______________________________________________

Absolutely Stunning Arts and Craft Homes

available for your Spring, 2016 brood.

Enjoy urban-living at its wilderness finest 

as you fly into your individual nest cells.

No processed paper products. 

Only hand gathered trail branches

placed in a frame of untreated, recycled wood.

Loaded with totally tubular, smooth, 5/16" 

holes, 4" long for your egg depositing comfort.

Nearby water and clay mud.

The high cathedral roof line offers overhanging 

protection from rain.

The South facing entrances will warm you each morning,

 as you overlook

quiet grounds, rich in organic, gourmet pollen and nectar.

Join this exclusive community of docile, solitary, yet

friendly neighbors

in a bio-diverse location.

With on-site security as you provision your 

egg chambers. 

FREE RENT

in exchange for open flower pollination

and viewing rights.

_________________________________________________

This is what Duke made for me for my recent birthday.

I've spent hours reading about Mason bees. 

More about them in a future post.

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

Poo tickets as a teaching aid

Speaking of poo tickets, npr, and things I love...

Paleontologist, Louise Leakey, used a helpful analogy for geologic time on a ted radio hour broadcast last week. 

The vast scale of geologic time has always been a barricade in my brain for the appreciation for the length of geologic history.

She suggested...

Unrolling (or just thinking about) a 400 sheet roll of 

.

Dinosaurs

(Hi there!)

would not enter the scene (of geologic time) until the 19th sheet from the end of the roll.

The asteroid that "wiped" (ha, ha, ha) them out didn't hit until the 5th sheet from the end of the roll.

So stegosaurus, T-rex, triceratops, diplodocus, coelophysis and all their families,  friends and enemies were around for 14 sheets of t.p.

Mammals start arriving after the dinosaurs were extinct.  But our species doesn't come into being until the last millimeter on the last (#400) sheet of quilted, bleached white, ultra soft toilet paper.

This tangible minute-amount of toilet-paper-time (200,000 years) presents the whole history of our species.

There are multiple websites that address this teaching aid, but I had never heard of it.

And geologic time is still mind boggling when I let my thinking wander to the big, ancient history of little me, but 

it does give me a clearer understanding of just how old  I am  the earth is.  

By the way, did you know that toilet paper used to come in colors?  Yes, you could match, or at least coordinate, your t.p. color to your powder room wall color. 

Things to think about when you're visiting the loo.

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

Fullerton's Hiltscher and Juanita Cooke Trails

I have clocked thousands of miles walking the Hiltscher and Juanita Cooke trails in Fullerton, California.

The geographic location remains constant, of course,

 but the scenery changes daily without fail.

California peppers, oaks, and pines

Sycamores, eucalyptus, and jacaranda

going through their yearly cycles.

Owls, hawks, and woodpeckers

Parrots, bluebirds, towhees, and song birds

bringing a natural calm to a crisis-fatigued world.

Squirrels, everyday, doing squirrel-ly things.
An escaped domestic rabbit occasionally.
 Coyote trying to eke out a living within dwindling habitat.

Bicyclists, joggers, and dog walkers.

Explorers, birders, and photographers in

an ever-changing parade on the well-used trails.

Oh, the things you'll see on Mulberry Street the trails...
Oh, the things I've seen...

An old man in Dove shorts with a front riding fanny pack.

 (Yes, the image in your mind's eye is as bad as the reality of it was!)

An old woman pushing forward through the dust using a walker.

(And me making a silent vow that I, too, will not be vain and will use whatever prosthetic needed, in order to keep moving both on and off of the trail.)

Gaits as personal as finger prints.

Mothers pushing empty jogging strollers, as their children
run ahead and gather sticks.

  Children riding on the shoulders of an adult.

Children in radio fliers, on tandem bikes, and on unicycles.

Photographers with elaborate "sets" for holiday and "save the date"
shoots...beds, chairs, tables, rugs, decorated Christmas trees, all under an oak.
Birders with tripods and large lenses. 
Students on assignment.

Runners with so much sweat flying, I hope their wake doesn't baptize me.
High school track teams with kids laughing and prancing along.

Some joggers (well beyond their teens) panting, heaving and wheezing so heavily, I mentally brush up on CPR. How many chest compressions per minute?  100.

People walking dogs.
People urging their arthritic dog along.  Dogs in booties. 
Dogs in strollers, dogs being carried in a front pack. ← Poor doggies.

I've seen amateur movies being filmed.
Tai chi movements flowing uninhibited.
Organized events: races, scouting, tree plantings.

There are domestic animals in the fenced properties along the trails 
or, some times, on the trail:
horses, sheep, goats, llamas, geese, chickens, dogs, and cats.

I have found feathers, a $20 bill, and contentment.
I have heard music wafting from above.

I've walked through fog,
on crunchy frost,
and in heat that causes my feet and hands to swell.

I've walked under an umbrella, 
under a full head of steam,
and under clouds that looked like spilled paint.

This time of the year my shod feet get so dirty from the dusty ground, I have to wash them when I get home.
There are a few times a winter when the mud is so bad, detours, board walks, and careful stepping is paramount. 

I see friends, family, and strangers. (People who know me, but I don't know them.  This happens when your daughter was a beloved 2nd grader teacher at the nearby elementary school.)

And, as you can imagine, there's every kind of attire to be seen, including
prom dresses, bridal gowns, jogging spandex and nylon,
prairie skirts, wife-beaters, toe shoes, an array of hats, medical face masks,
 and, Dove shorts!

I love walking the trails and never tire of the outdoor pageant.
I hope you have a recreational trail near your home.
And, if so, I hope you are able to enjoy it.

Happy trails to you.

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

there's lions in them thar' holes

...or another reason yet that you should read to your children

posted by: jennifer

so for about the past year or so we have noticed these small divots in the loose dirt under our hundreds of years old, live oak.

at first i just thought one of the kids was walking around poking a stick into the ground intermittently, but then i crossed that thought of the list.

we had a couple of people hypothesize on what they felt caused them... one being condensation forming on the tree and dripping down... but i had to throw that off the list as well.

it just didn't make sense.  and when i would walk through the yard and see the holes, i would wonder.  i started thinking it was something alien.  i was clearly grasping at straws here people.

i had of course tried to google it, but came up empty handed.  i was getting images of gopher holes... vole holes....hole holes.

these were inverted cone holes.

then one day, while reading tove jansson's  finn family moomintroll  i learned something new.

i read:
*In case you don't know, an Ant-lion is a crafty insect who digs himself down into the sand
leaving a small round hole above him.  Into this hole unsuspecting little animals fall and then get caught by the Ant-lion, who pops up from the bottom of the hole and devours them.
   You can read all about it in the Encyclopedia if you don't believe me.  Translator

now, upon reading this i looked at my son, and said something along the lines of..."do you think this is real?"  

i mean, it seemed pretty far fetched to me.  and in fact, when searching for ant-lions on ye old google, i felt a wee bit gullible.   

but guess what?!  they are real.  and we have ant-lions living in our yard.  wild huh?  so, next time someone asks what those small holes are in the dirt are from i will state with authority,
"there's lions in them thar' holes".....(ant-lions that is)

cheers!

Bats!

We have had a couple bats flying above our back yard 

sanctuary at dusk.

Yes, we are excited about having another misunderstood creature in our garden.

My bat encounters have been limited.  We see them while camping.  And  

while visiting my sister and brother-in-law in Texas, I was all atingle when they took me to see a million bats emerging from their roost under the Congress Ave. Bridge. This is the world's largest urban bat colony.  My sister knows what I like!

Also, on my list of bat experiences, I have loved the illustrated bats in Brian Lies "Bats" books...Bats at the Beach, Bats at the Library, and Bats at the Ballgame.  (A new one, Bats in the Band, will be released in August.  I will be adding it to my children's books shelf.  And I will be reading it to my grandchildren.)

Like bees, bat populations are in decline.  And like bees, they hold vital ecological roles.  A little knowledge about these mammals will help calm the fears that myths and scaremongers perpetuate.

Nearly all the bats in the continental United States and Canada are insectivores.  They are too busy hunting and eating flies, mosquitoes, beetles and cockroaches to want to fly into someone's hair.

A single bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour.  

Of the over 1,200 species scientists now acknowledge, only 3 species are vampire bats. All 3 of these species live in Latin America. 

These blood eating bats do not "suck" blood as Hollywood would show it, but lap it as a cat would drink its cream.

Protein in a bat's saliva prevents the host's blood from clotting.  The properties found there have lead to positive use in medicine.

Coincidentally, my niece and her husband had a bat in their yard last week too. They live in Texas.  

This bat was hanging upside down, which is normal, but it was, abnormally, rather close to the ground.

They wisely called animal control.  Bats can have rabies.  And just as any  wild animal should not be handled, you should not touch a bat.

Most bat bites occur while a sick or injured bat is being picked up.

Bats play a crucial role in insect control, in pollination, and in the spreading of seeds.  They are the only mammal capable of true flight.  Their wings contain the same bone structure as a human hand.   Their velvety skin stretches across these bones like the fabric and ribs of an umbrella.  The thumbs cling to surfaces when the bat alights.  The sensitive touch-receptors on the surface of their wings are also found on human fingertips.

Bats roost upside down, because the bones in the hind legs cannot support their body weight. 

A female bat usually has only one pup a year.

 The females congregate together to bear and raise the young.  The pup weighs 25% of its mother's body weigh.  This is proportionate to a human mother giving birth to a 31 pound baby.  Ouch!

On top of that, the mother gives birth while hanging by her feet, and she must catch her baby with her wings as it drops.  The pup drinks its mother's milk from birth and up to 6 months.  A young bat cannot forage on its own until its wings are fully developed.

Where's dad during all this?  He's hanging out with his buddies in some man cave.

Any of you familiar with Brian Lies' illustrations have seen the baby bat being carried by its mother while she is flying.  Pups do ride along with their mothers.  When mom is flying, the pup holds on with its teeth.

In insect eating bats, a highly sophisticated sense of hearing is used for navigation and finding prey.   Fruit bats do not use a echolocation system because fruit doesn't fly move.  Fruit bats have excellent eye sight and a good sense of smell to find their food. 
 But, insectivores emit sounds that then bounce back to the bat.  In a split second, the bat can determine the size, distance, speed at which an object is moving.  Even the texture of an object is known from the sound waves created.

These gentle and intelligent mammals, that live for more than 20 years, deserve our appreciation and respect for the many ways they help us humans.
I hope you can enjoy seeing some bats soon, be it in a book or in the twilight sky.  

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

Opossum... Overcoming a bad reputation

I'd like to introduce you to today's guest blogger.  Formerly Joey.  Now, Jill Opossum...

Hi everyone!  I'm wondering.  Why don't people like me?

I think I'm rather cute and I am extremely useful.

I was recently rescued from the gutter, having lost my way on my first night out of my den nest.  It's easy to get turned around when you strike out on your own. 

The world doesn't look so large while riding on mom's back.

At 7" long, I am capable of surviving all by myself.  I just need to learn about streets, cars, and such.

I am a Virginia opossum and the only marsupial found in the United States or Canada.  I come from the oldest surviving mammal family in the world, and can trace my family tree back to the age of the dinosaurs.  Pretty good lineage, I'd say.

Because we opossums have no method of food storage or energy storage, I needed to quickly find a food and water source.  Lucky for me, I was brought to the Taylor Certified Wildlife Habitat. 

I have a stable food source here.  And there are many containers with water.  I am also safe from some of the predators which usually kill us opossums: humans, cars, and dogs.  I need to be on the watch for owls though.

I can be such a helper.  I'm really a natural clean up engineer.  I eat so much of what you don't want in your yard...beetles, cockroaches, snails, slugs, mice, and rats.  I will scavenge in your garbage, if it is accessible. I know you don't like that.  But humans aren't the only ones that crumble when it comes to fast food, you know.

I'm smarter than a dog, more on the level of a pig.  (My kind have been tested for learning abilities.) I present far fewer health risks to humans than do dogs or cats.  I am more resistant to rabies than any other mammal, including man.  

I am gentle, very quiet, and really, prefer to be left alone.  I avoid confrontation.  My only defense is bluffing that I'm dead.  It is an unconscious act when I roll over, become stiff, and close my eyes or stare off into space.

I know that this "look" does nothing for my image problem.  I do show my 50 teeth when I'm frightened.  This only gives the appearance that I can defend myself, but I can't.  So please let me, or any of my fellow opossums, just mosey about. We won't hurt you, or dig in your soil, or make any trouble.

It's dark out now and time for me to get going.  I'll be cleaning up the stuff you don't want to see.  The only thanks I need is your respect and acceptance that I am an important part of the natural world.

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

Dragon from the black lagoon

My coconut swirled the first time I ended up with an alien looking creature in my hand while cleaning my pond.  It startled me and I involuntarily flung it back into the pond muck.  

Holy crap, what was that?

I had not put any such thing in my pond!

The next time I cleaned the barrel pond of years ago, I was on guard for the bizarre looking stranger.  Sure enough, I scooped up another one in the black muck from the bottom of the barrel.  This time I held it long enough to identify it...a dragonfly nymph.

Of course!

Cover this dude in black muck and it adds to the "get that out of my hand" signal my eyes sent to my brain.

The legs are locked into the position the nymph was in, as it as it hung onto the reed and arrived in the world out of  its waterborne life. The legs also take on this shape when while flying and the dragonfly catches its prey.  The legs create a cage around the caught insect so it cannot escape.  

Dragonflies are thought to be sinister in Europe and in some areas of the Southern U.S.

But for Native Americans, the Japanese, the Chinese and many others, dragonflies are admired and respected. 

I side with those who see these agile fliers as a symbol for courage, strength, swiftness, agility, and happiness.
Dragonflies symbolize the wisdom of transformation and adaptability in life.
The Japanese have a common name for almost all of the 200 dragonfly species that are found in Japan.  I don't even know the common name of the dragonflies in my own pond.  But I'm delighted they grace my garden.

Dragonflies are harmless.  And they are fascinating. 

Their eggs are laid in water and the larval stage, when they look so creepy to me, lasts 2 - 3 years, but can be up to 5 years.

When the nymph is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it climbs out of the water and up a reed.  Exposure to air starts the breathing process.  The larval skin splits and the dragonfly crawls out.  

I recently saw a nymph fresh out of its exoskeleton, as it hung on a pond plant reed while its 4 iridescent wings dried and hardened. 

What a packing job!  That dragonfly was inside this casing.  The abdomen was packed in like a telescope.  

You can see the bulbous eyes well in this picture.  These eyes contain as many as 30,000 lenses, which along with the wraparound feature give the dragonfly nearly 360 degree vision.   These eyes help the dragonfly intercept their prey mid-flight with a 95% success rate.   Also visible is the opening where the mature nymph emerged as a dragonfly.

These delicate, yet powerful, 4 wings each move independently of each other.  Dragonflies can propel themselves in 6 directions--up, down, forwards, backwards, and side to side.

Next time I play "Super Heroes" with my grandchildren, I am going to be 
Ball- of- Fire- Dragon.

 My super powers will be:
I am a fast and powerful helicopter-like flyer.
I can fly upside down, if necessary.
I can fly further than any other insect.
My jaws open as wide as my entire head.
My hinged & serrated jaws immobilize & mash.
I have 30,000 lenses and see things in ways humans can't.
My legs curve around my prey to create a cage that prevents escape.
I calculate to intercept my prey.

Super powers, yes.  But not fictional. 
Mosquitoes and flies don't have a chance.

t.t.f.n. ~ Carol

bloody bloomin' plant

posted by:  jennifer

years ago while at my grandpa wagner's house, my mom and i were looking at a very pretty flower growing in his planter.   neither of us had ever seen one like it before.  we asked him what kind of flower it was.   he got a little agitated and responded "i don't know.  it's a bloody bloomin' plant." 

this popped up in my head yesterday.... because i have a shrub blooming in my front yard that is stopping traffic.   literally.  a car stopped in the middle of the street yesterday morning.   looking towards our house.  i am guessing it is because of this beauty.  but, i started thinking that i didn't even know what kind of plant it was.  

and i don't think i have enough moxie to tell someone that it is a bloody bloomin' plant.  i wish i did.

so i decided to research it.   this plant is really very plain when not in bloom.   bordering on ugly if truth be told.  but when it decides to bloom it is breathtaking.  the bees think so too. 
in my experience the blossoms only last a week or so.  leaving only a litter of purple spent blossoms on the ground.  

ceanothus maritimus  or "valley violet".

or bloody bloomin' plant if you are feeling feisty and you can't remember what it called.  
either works for me.


cheers!

the case for crows. or why i love feathered apes

posted by jennifer:

at a dinner party last week....
  dinner party, that sounds very outdated.  and does not sound natural coming from my mouth.... or fingertips as the case may be.

while having dinner with friends last week, one of the women there was sharing her dislike of crows.  namely the ones that are always fouling up her solar powered bird bath.  and by the way, how does a solar powered bird bath work?  yeah,  i know it is powered by the sun, but why would your bird bath need power?  i should have asked her.  but at that point i was distracted by thinking of what to say to her in defense of the crows.

i know that she is not alone in her feelings.  but really, what do you expect when the group name of crows is murder.   a murder of crows.   hmmm.  i wonder what the crows would have to say about that?    and what about in a movie.  when you hear a crow calling you just know that it is not going to be all sunshine and rainbows in the next scene.

but really, they are amazing creatures.  

did you know that when a crow dies or is killed, all the crows in the area will fly to a tree together. they will have a few minutes of silence.  and then they will silently fly away from the tree at the same time? a kind of crow wake.   how cool is that?

and crows can remember faces.  and they teach their young to be on alert for those people who pose a threat to them.  not all people.  just the ones who the adult crows have been threatened by.  

crows can make and use tools.  the only other animals known to make tools are ape and humans.  hence the name feathered apes or primates.

crows have a very strong family unit.  the fledglings will stay with their parents for up to five years.   and the extended family sometimes helps out in the unit.

i heard a very neat thing from another woman at the dinner i was at.  she was telling us about an article she had read in sun magazine years back.  i couldn't find the article to read it myself, but the gist of it is:
  a couple of men were out hiking.  they saw an owl being heckled by some crows. (owls and 
  crows as well as hawks and crows don't really jive.   they are as was quoted to me "mortal
  enemies")  anyway, the crows won this battle apparently because when the hikers came to 
  a canyon,  they came upon the crows gathering small rocks, feathers, sticks and such, they
  were laying them in front of the dead owl.  i mean i guess it is a little sad.  i do like owls, but 
  crows are killed by owls as well.  and i am guessing the owls don't build a shrine.

and i guess i also have a soft spot in my heart for crows because when growing up, we helped raise two fledgling crows.  young crows that were on their own.....

 and by the way, i love that my mom was always okay with us bringing home birds to raise.  poor little things that had fallen out of a nest or some such bad fortune.   i mean she always seem okay with it outwardly.  i am sure that when we came home with a bird with no feathers... with eyes sealed shut... she must have groaned loudly inside.  but i really never remember her telling us to take that thing outside.  instead it was helping us make our special bird food.  bread softened with milk.  and helping us find the tweezers to feed the pathetic things.

but the crows.  they lived with us.  hop-a-long.... who wait for it... had a bad leg.  and blue eyes.  guess what color his eyes were?   no, not brown.   blue!   even after they were old enough to be on their own, they would come back to visit us.   blue eyes would caw for food by the back door.  well after the time he was already gathering his own food.  and we saw hop-a-long at the park for months and months after he was out on his own.  we always recognized him with his curled up foot.  
  
i guess that is the real reason i smile when i see crows in the yard.  and this year the crows beat out the hawks for rights at our oak tree for nesting.  i get to watch daily as they try to make it in a world where they are being scolded for  trying to clean their food  before they eat it..... especially if their sink is a solar powered bird bath.

here's to the crows.

cheers!