Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Maternal Instinct

The Maternal Instinct

When we returned from the Grand Canyon trip, we had a new neighbor--a rather loud one at that.


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It appears to be a Western Meadowlark, with an astonishingly bright yellow coloration. And yes, when seen from above, it appears that she has picked one of our rain gutters to build a nest.


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I suspect that in our absence, she decided that this would be a nice quiet place to lay her eggs, without worry about predators being able to get to it.

Of course, now we're back, and as soon as we open the garage door, or pull up in one of our cars, she zooms out of the nest, squawking loudly, hoping that we will chase her, and leave her eggs alone.


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She'll take off on a great loop, and eventually land out in the brush.


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Only when we have left the vicinity does she fly back home.

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