Quest for Aphids.

None here.

Nope.

Rats.

All the way to the top for...

the view?

Once was tree.

Is now album cover.

(For those who remember album covers.)

Black birds, neither of which is a blackbird.

Crowlets.

Already Northwestern Crows are fledging. One of few birds that fledges faster is the European Starling. These two birds, one native but benefiting immeasurably from urban sprawl and characteristic human sloppiness, the other introduced and redefining the term "invasive," are not unknown to each other. Crows are rapacious predators of starling eggs and nestlings. Early spring is punctuated by the frantic shrieking of adult starlings, as crows plunder their nests.

What if they didn't? How many starlings would there be--could there possibly be?

People complain about crows, especially post-breeding season when they form roosting flocks that number in the thousands. Ooh, they're up to something.

And some people look at a starling and believe it to be a baby crow.

No, that is wrong.

This year's pink poppy.

As hinted at in a previous post, it was inevitable that the first of the pinks would soon make an appearance. The first of the year hatched today.

Notice the additional theme: rain. Wow, we've had a lot of rain. Mowing the lawn is like pushing around an upside-down salad spinner.

Wires.

Clouds over the North Shore mountains last night.

I would not want to be a daddy-longlegs riding a tennis ball with clouds like this on the horizon. I would, however, like to be able to take a picture of the sky that does not include overhead wires.