Napa nest 8.

This is the second set of chicks this spring for one very busy house finch mother.  Right next to my front door, balanced on the top of a pair of outdoor lights, the nest of the Haemorhous mexicanus is looking a little worse for wear.  The four, fluffy chicks, huddled together in the nest, don't seem to care about the droppings accumulating around the edge of their weed, grass and horsehair-lined penthouse, so I suppose I shouldn't let it bother me either.  Both Vinomaker and I have stopped using the front door, as much as we normally would, so as to not unduly disturb the materfamilias in the raising of her brood.  I just love having baby critters around Vinoland.

A trio of chicks.

Just wanted to report that Vinoland's California towhee chicks are doing really well.  All three eggs hatched, the chicks are feathering up nicely and I'm sure that they will fledge this week.  I took this photograph with a long lens, atop a very rickety old chair, whilst mama and papa towhee protested, one Syrah row over, perched beside each other on an irrigation line.  Not wanting to agitate the parent birds too much, I decided that any photo I had already managed to snap of the chicks would have to suffice.  I would feel horrible if the nest was abandoned because I was too nosy.  I carefully climbed down, very carefully, and went about my business in the Pinot grigio vines.  I hope to see these little chaps, or chapesses, eating seed on my deck rail very soon.

Napa nest 7.

I've been working in the vineyard the past few afternoons.  Well, actually, today I got distracted by Vinoland's bountiful blackberry crop. Wow, all that winter rain has paid off.  I'm going to be consuming a lot of vanilla gelato in the next few weeks, just sayin'.  But back to the grapes. Everything is looking good; healthy canopy; nice crop.
On Thursday, a California towhee alerted me to the presence of her nest whilst I was working in the Syrah vines.  Momma towhee's usually mellow, but bright, single-note call was whipped-up into a frenzied chip-chip-chip as I got closer to her nest which was hidden in the top of the canopy. Momma-bird got even further agitated when I got out a step ladder so that I could take a photograph.  Sorry Momma, just had to get a photo of this horse hair-lined, luxury Napa nest.
I am happy to report that Momma and the eggs survived my interloping: the past couple of days she has been dutifully sitting on the nest doing the stuff that birds do best.  So adorable.

Napa nest 6.

I'm so excited.  I have a dark-eyed junco nest in my Pinot grigio vines. With Vinomaker's help, I spent most of  my day putting up the bird netting in the Pinot grigio vines.  Just as I was pulling some unwanted lateral growth from higher up in the canopy I noticed this nest.  As the nest was just above eye level, I had to stand on my tiptoes to see inside - four eggs, wow! Just then I realised I was being harangued by a dark-eyed junco female who wasn't nearly as excited with my find as I was. Sorry momma, let me just get right out of your way.

Napa nest 5.

Veraison is running rampant in Vinoland.  Well maybe not quite rampant, but it is moving right along in the Pinot grigio and the Syrah vines (and probably the Orange muscat vines also, it's just harder to see in white grapes).  So today, I was going to post a photograph of one, or the other, of the vine varieties changing colour except I discovered something more interesting.
Yesterday, whilst working in the Pinot grigio vines, I suddenly became aware that I might be close to a bird's nest.  How did I come to this conclusion?  A pair of California Towhees (Melozone crissalis) decided I was persona non grata in a particular part of the Pinot grigio block and they created quite a ruckus to dissuade me from working around their nest further.  I did have a quick gander and discovered that their wonderfully constructed nest held four, blue-green speckled eggs.  How wonderful.  I then immediately left them alone.
Today, whilst working in the Cabernet sauvignon vines, the same thing happened: another pair of towhees made it abundantly clear that they were not very happy with me performing some vineyard operations in their neighbourhood.  I couldn't help but to take a peek and to my delight I espied one egg and two pinky-grey, fuzzy chicks.  Momma towhee loudly protested my reappearance with a camera, but I just had to get a photo.  And as I snapped away, one baby promptly fell over onto his back.  So cute.  Love all my Vinoland feathered friends.

Napa nest 4.

Working in the Pinot grigio vines this afternoon, I came across this little architectural masterpiece. Woven from a diminutive grass variety, and lined with what looks like Vinodog fur, the nest is too large to be a hummingbird's nest and too small to be that of a California Towhee. There is not a shred of evidence left inside, like an eggshell fragment, or a downy feather, that would help me identify the builder. I will just have to keep on guessing as to the identity of the mystery mastermind behind this marvelous construction, who was genius enough to utilise the vine's tendrils as structural anchors.

Napa nest 3.

The summer solstice came and went, but the birds around here still seem to be procreating. Stop it, Vinomaker needs to sulphur the Syrah you have woven your horse hair-lined nest into. The nest in question belongs to a California Towhee (Melozone crissalis), cute birds, but I still want my vineyard to be mildew free!

Napa nest 2.

Never say never!
I was wondering why Vinodog 2 just happened to get into a very vociferous altercation with a male California quail (Callipepla californica) every time she took a wee in a particular part of the vineyard.
I may have thought that spring and chick-rearing was at an end for the season, but apparently not the quail with the baker's dozen waiting to be hatched.  I feel all warm and fuzzy. Or is that the 2006 Cabernet franc speaking?  Probably just the cuteness of it all.

A Napa nest.

Spring is almost at an end.  Not that you'd know it from the unusually cool weather we have been having.  Summer is just around the corner but temps are at least 10 degrees below normal for this time of year. Perfect temperatures for powdery mildew infection of the vines.
The local avian population may be done with child-rearing for the season (as evidenced by the abandoned nest I found earlier: complete with Vinodog 1 fur-lining of course), but I still have yet to plant and rear my babies!
We did finally manage to get the tree stump out today, hooray! It took myself and Vinomaker, on a tractor each, ganging up on the aforementioned stump until it finally yielded to the power of John Deere and Ford.  Phew!
Now, aren't I supposed to be nest hunting for Thud?

Hello Napa.

Yesterday was an exhausting, but exciting day. It started with a beautiful, new life and ended with me being separated from my luggage.
Strolling around the vineyard this morning, observing the Chia Pet like growth of the vines (in my 2 week absence), I noticed this feat of engineering. There are many bird's nests around the house and vineyard right now, but this one, tucked up under the eaves of the barn, caught my eye. Our industrious feathered friends are generally ingenious in their choice of nesting materials, but this little opportunistic twitter had chosen discarded grapevine rachises to underpin the structure of her domicile...or maybe it was meant as an aesthetic, architectural statement.
Home sweet home.