Hummingbirds are growing

The nest is probably starting to get a little close with two growing hummingbirds packed into it. The mother bird has started to feed the babies even when we are at the far edge of the patio, something she wouldn't do when they were smaller. She comes and feeds the birds and they eat and then do some stretching and flap their little wings. One of the babies is definitely larger than the other.
An interesting phenomenon is the spattering of droppings under the nest. We've seen the little specks come flying out of the nest.

One baby hummingbird chin

The mother hummingbird has now started sleeping elsewhere, which means the hatchlings are feathered enough to regulate their own body temperatures. I've seen two little chins poking above the nest, and today while the mother was off foraging I got close for a quick photo of one tiny chin.

Hummingbird eggs hatched

The mother bird has been feeding babies for several days now. In the past two days when she feeds the baby bird beaks have been cresting the rim of the nest.
I set up the tripod in the living room and waited for her to come back from a foraging flight and took many photos when she returned.

Hummingbird Nest Decorated with Lichen

The hummingbird has added a considerable coating of lichen pieces to the outside of her nest. It would work great as camouflage in a tree. I'm not sure she's really blending in with the string lights though. She is on the nest for longer periods of time, and away for shorter. Makes sense. She will bring back little pieces of fluff and tuck them inside the nest.

She'll feed at some nearby flowers in the back yard, and also at flowers in the front yard.

I'll start watching for babies in about a week or so.

Lovely Lavender

Lavender, oh how I love this plant. I have planted many lavenders and yet I never seem to have enough. It is easy to propagate by cuttings though, so I'll be making more. I even grew out seeds one year and got some good plants.

I had big plans to harvest the lavender and have long beautiful bundles of it, to give as gifts and so forth. I paid attention to when the lower two flowers opened, and cut the stems before noon. I banded the bundle of stalks with a rubber band. I followed the directions I read in the Lavender book by Robert Kourik. It was time consuming and tedious. And this from a person who is growing wheat with which to make bread. I'm into process, but something wasn't doing it for me with this process. And it made a rather unimpressive bundle once it dried.

A week passed and the flowers opened and drew the bees in. And I had a thought, since I was getting a little low on my batch of lemon verbena syrup, I thought I'd try making lavender syrup.

Harvesting was simply cutting the stems just at the base of the flowering head. I stripped off several heads and got about half an ounce of flowers and calyx. It was fast and easy.

I massaged the flowers a little, to help release the oils, while the sugar water boiled for 5 minutes. 2 cups sugar, 2.5 cups water.

When the 5 minutes of boiling was up, I took the pot off the heat and added the lavender to the sugar water. Cover and let steep at least 30 minutes.

The flowers shrank considerably. I strained it into a bowl while I cleaned the pot, then strained it back into the pot to boil for another 30 seconds.

I let it cool a bit and then poured it into my bottles. What a lovely color the syrup picked up from the flowers. I got myself a glass of ice and put a teaspoon or two of the lavender syrup and topped it off with water. Delicious!

Another bird...

The front yard has large English walnut trees along the street and there has been quite a ruckus lately with a few starlings. We were sitting out on the front porch this evening and spotted what the immediate ruckus was about. An owl has taken up residence in a hollow of a branch of a big walnut tree. Last year, in the summer, we noticed a pair of owls up there and this is the first sign of them this year. I got out the long lens and tripod and still managed to get blurry photos. The owl blends right in with the tree and through the viewfinder it was hard to get the focus just right. I could also go on about camera shake, but that might get boring.

Here are a few photos.