THE PHAROAH'S MARK

Can anybody tell me what this is?  (Don't be fooled by the blog post's title.)

The winner will receive . . . . . my admiration!

BEAU JACK AND THE DIAMONDBACKS

Take him out to the ballgame.  Not.

(Photo courtesy of the BRD)

DOVELET

This morning I went out to check on baby dove.  He was sitting in his nest, all alone, apparently waiting for someone to bring him some food.  Late this afternoon, I went out again and found that he has left the nest and was securely perched on the gridwork next to it.  He didn't seem at all concerned about me.  At least I don't think he was, though his eyes look pretty big as he carefully watched me take photos of him.

At any rate, he seems to be growing fast and will probably test his wings in a day or so and that's the last I'll see of him.  So this is his graduation picture.  Vaya con dios, young dove.

WATER

Something different from Hurricane Irene.

BIRTH!

There has been an opening.  Sometime in the past couple of days that egg the dove couple had been sitting on in front of my home has hatched.  I discovered the new nestling this morning.

It's staying close to mother (or father) right now, especially through a rain shower this morning.  But judging by its size it will soon be leaving the nest and creating more hoo-huh-hoo-hoo racket in our nice quiet neighborhood.

A MUSICAL INTERLUDE

All right, enough about those damned doves for awhile.  Give a listen to one of the most brilliant talents around.  Esperanza Spalding.

DOVE UPDATE

I snapped a picture this morning but I can't tell whether this is mother or father.

Maybe some of my "dove experts" can tell me.

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Later: SWMBO wisely suggested I look on the Internet to answer some of my questions.  So I did.  And I learned this: Incubation takes two weeks.  Mom and Pop take turns on the nest, he usually in the morning and early afternoon, she in the afternoon and night.  Also: when one or the other is flushed from the nest, it will typically flop to the ground and flutter around as if it has a broken wing.  This is to lure the predator away from the nest.  That's exactly what happened when I took today's picture.  The camera makes a little beep when it takes a photo and that apparently frightened the bird, which exploded off the nest and then down to the ground about six feet away and began fluttering around on the ground, one wing sort of acting like it wasn't working well.  Horrified, I retreated to the house and when I checked later, the bird was back on its nest.  Fortunately the rowdy departure had not dislodged the egg(s).