Nesting

The backyard has been the site of afternoon concerts of birdsong that have been astonishing in their variety. It's wonderful to sit out there and listen as so many different species are singing and calling all at once. I don't necessarily see a lot of birds every day, especially now that there are leaves on the trees, but I hear a lot of them. There are very few bird species whose songs or calls I recognize, so I don't know what's out there–there was one singing up a storm this afternoon (hey, is that where that storm came from?) that I know I have never heard before. It was the tune of La Cucaracha. The reason for all of this warbling (and I could not tell you if any of it is from warblers) is probably claiming territory and looking for mates, because it's that time of year, but from a human perspective it's just joyous.

And speaking of claiming territory and looking for mates, and what comes after, I was finishing mowing the lawn today when I came across part of an eggshell (and then accidentally ran it over with the lawn mower). I have read that birds will fly off with the bits of eggshells after their babies hatch because they don't want the dropped shells to be under their nest, alerting predators to the presence of young, defenseless birds, so I knew that the shell probably did not come from the tree under which I found it, but I looked up anyway, and saw this–Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Mourning dove on her nest. Normally I would not make a mourning dove Backyard Bird of the Day, because I find them terribly annoying, but I am making an exception for this one, because she is nesting. I was surprised to see it, not so much because it was surprising to see a nest, but because she didn't fly away–mourning doves are constantly exploding out of bushes just because I walk by, and last year I had to avoid this tree for a while because there was a mourning dove nest in it, and she would fly away when I came near. I was also surprised to see how small the nest is. It's basically just a small platform of twigs. I don't know how many eggs are in it, but it's going to be very crowded when the babies hatch.

It's May, so...

 Canada mayflowers are blooming.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Carpenter bee, patrolling the rocks down by the street. It had to chase away several other carpenter bees in the time I was watching.

 I think this is a twelve-spotted ladybeetle, but I am not sure, and I am using the upstairs computer instead of my laptop, and my books are downstairs, and I am not going to go down to get them and look it up, so... it's a ladybeetle.

 Picnic beetle

 Some other kind of beetle. It was a beetly day. In fact, it's kind of been a beetly week so far.

Tent caterpillars marching around. (A group of caterpillars is called an army, so marching works for them).

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Crab spider. I love when spiders do this, stand up with their back ends in the air, shooting out silk threads to the wind. The point is for the thread to catch on something, so then the spider can use it to travel across it.

 The spider did not travel along the thread, though. It stayed on the leaf.