Was sitting at the desk, the doors to the deck open (except for the screen, naturally) since it’s a surprisingly cool and balmy day today. Heard a bizarre set of noises–raucous calls mixed with a kind of liquid “queedle-whurp!” sound, and flapping. Baffled, I went to the screen, to behold a terribly scruffy blue jay yammering and flopping from tree to deck to railing. I think it might be a fledgling–it was very gray, and not real good at flight–but I still have no idea when these birds breed, so I could be wrong. A few seconds later, another, bright blue bluejay appeared to chivy it off into the woods.

All this commotion stirred up a ruby-throated hummingbird, who buzzed the jays irritably, and then settled down to work on my red salvia, the only one of my hummingbird plants to survive and flower madly.

It made me happy.

Also, anyone unable to wade through Deviant Art for the dodos, try

http://vcl.ctrl-c.liu.se/vcl/Artists/Ursula-Vernon/Sketches/dodosurvival.jpg
http://vcl.ctrl-c.liu.se/vcl/Artists/Ursula-Vernon/Sketches/ascentdodo.jpg

Update: Unable to resist, I did a quick watercolor version of “Ascent”:
http://yerf.com/vernursu/dodoascent.jpg