Darby Conley on stem cell research: “If [it] were legal, all you Democrats would be trying to grow little spines in lab dishes.”
For the past three days, i’ve been sitting here watching two new neighbors, a couple of cute little birds (and don’t ask me what they are because i can barely tell a hummingbird from a heron). They’re trying with little success to build a nest on a ledge beneath my patio roof. I’ve never built a nest, but i cannot imagine an easier place to build one, and yet these two are utterly inept. The patio beneath the proposed nest site is covered with bits of would-be nest material that they’ve dropped, but no nest is rising from the ledge. Apparently, for every piece they add, they knock another off. I fear they will not be contributing to their gene pool, and this grieves me since i already find them delightful. Hell, if i knew what they ate, i’d put some out for ’em.
I’ve managed to photograph only one of them, the one who sits on the railing and chirps melodiously while the other one does the work. I’m guessing it’s the male and am thinking that if he really wants progeny he’ll give her a hand with that nest since she clearly can’t do it all by herself.
Here he is. If you know his name, contact me. I’ve gone Googling around for images of birds with speckled breasts, and the closest i’ve found is Cassin’s Finch, Carpodacus cassinii. But other images of that finch are not even close. That said, a couple of friends, who by definition know more about birds than i do, say it’s a sparrow. So i dunno, and for all i know, this could be the female.
Oh, and since i’m featuring fauna today, here’s a Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) who was hanging out in Jo Ann’s garden.
