Sunday, June 22, 2008

The hawk chicks are out hunting

2 hawks, 1 mom and 1 babe

Both of the Hawk chicks are out of the nest and learning to hunt. So far it has been small lizards.

The parents left the remnants of a parrot in the Zgonc bird bath to soften. As in years past before the chicks learn to hunt bigger prey the parents make a kill and let it soften someplace before delivering it to the chicks to pick apart and eat. So much for our native species getting pushed out of the neighborhood.

So far the chicks hunting routine seems to be centered in the Zgonc to Chan yards. The entire family is out fairly each morning. The parents seem to spend a lot of time in the pines on Canyone watching the chicks learn to fly etc., on our street. The entire clan gets together later afternoon at Roberto's house. Sometime around dusk they return to their nest.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Baby Hawks are out of the nest today.

The big discovery this morning is that the pair of nesting Hawks that have visited us the last 7 years has 2 chicks again this year. Also this morning the first of the chicks made it first tentative flight out and was in the corner of my gardens. The father was near the nest watching us. The mother was swooping about hunting and watching as well.

If the schedule follows the last few years in about 4 weeks the chicks will be hunting on their own with the parents leaving a week or so later.

With 4 hawks hunting we should some good action in the next few weeks. It is always interesting to watch them learn to hunt. The feeding, well that is only for the strong stomachs. Any guesses how soon we see them yank a parrot or raven out of the sky and feed?

Monday, June 9, 2008

Taggers punk our neighborhood


Sadly our neighbors closer to Foothill got tagged in the wee hours Saturday morning. MPD was called and assured the owner of the worst hit property the city would be by to remove it. (If the city can't clean it up soon we will. Frank, Mike and Joey visited with her and let her know we would clean it up for her if the city lets this go too much further). We may not be a "map" neighborhood but we deserve to be graffiti free as well!

Renee has a call into MPD to talk with the officer who took the report. She will find out if possible if we know which gang did it and what to watch for in the future to help prevent future incidents.

Karen who used to live on the street was by with Adrian on Sunday. As a little refresher she works for MUSD as a child psyche and is involved with at risk kids in our schools. She saw the graffiti and let Renee know that it was not a Monrovia gang. We don't know which gang it is, and we don't know if we should be reassured by it being "outsiders" or not.

As always if you see something going on call it in. If you see some up here that shouldn't be and they are some place where an outsider shouldn't be, call 911 as well. MPD needs our help to keep crime off our street.