Below is a picture Charlie took of me while we sat at a show this weekend. A very slow show. Very. Slow. But it's also a perfect example of my weekend. Lots of examining.
On Friday there was a little juvenile sparrow in our yard, hurt and helpless. A Red Shouldered Hawk has been lurking around, and definitely had it's eye on the little guy. It's pretty amazing to see the little birds all gang up on such a massive bird, I guess it keeps his ego in check. He/She didn't get to it, but the little guy died. By the time we intervened it must've been without food for 5 or 6 hours, we just kept hoping the mom would come by and take care of it, but no luck.
We, in all of our non-religious daily living, actually prayed and cried over the little bird, sending out lots of messages for hope for this helpless little creature to the world.
We'd also added another feeder to the yard only to be promptly chomped down (and then drained of it's food) by a squirrel. Another feeder was moved to the back yard, and in a 15 minute window yesterday there were blue birds, blue jays, chickadees, cardinals, robins, crows and other common birds all hanging around the area, seemingly waiting their turn.
Then the swarm came down and bees were everywhere. The birds were unphased, and in this time of diminishing bee populations, I wanted to watch and capture the moment. This was the second time I've seen that happen, the last time was right at 2 years ago. We have a hive in our house, between a the wall and the brick facade. We don't mind that they're there, so long as they don't mind that we're there, too. But the hive outgrows the space, so they find a suitable second queen, sweep her out of the hive, swarm around her as a living hive, and search for new digs.
I wonder if splitting off will be a biennial event. If it is, it's worthy of celebration, since no one really knows what's happening to the bees. (Mites? Cell phones? GMOs?) We hopped on the Mecklenburg County Beekeeper's website and found a guy to gather them up to keep. My best guess is that they used to divide and have woods to go into, but with the development/growth (and relative diminishing of wooded areas) they have no where to go.
Anyway, all of this happened while I was digging in the veggie beds, glad to have bees happy enough to stick around through the Summer and pollinate my tomatoes.
Here it is, the beds in grid form. Each square is approximately 1 square foot, but the beds are actually 21' long, so I'm counting on inexact measurements, and if I end up with extra space, I'll feel lucky to get to add more veggies!
Click on the image for a larger, legible version.
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