Backyard Birds

I thought it would be fun to keep an ongoing list of which species of birds visit our backyard. I am only counting birds I get an image of on our property and if the birds are sexually dimorphic I will count each sex as a different bird. Here are the first four. 

1. Lesser Goldfinch Carduelis psaltria

 2. Spotted Towhee Pipilo maculatus

3. Western Scrub-Jay Aphelocoma californica

4. Band-tailed Pigeon Columba fascicata 

Tree Fails to Ruin Our Stuff

At 1:30, on a windless afternoon, one of our large birch trees fell. It fell in the perfect spot stopping short of damaging our light, weather-vein, and roof. This is the second time we have gotten lucky with a tree (see the first time here). The day after the tree fell, I bought a cheap chainsaw and Spencer came over to help me take care of it.

 As you can see. The tree just missed the light.

 We first lifted the tree off the roof using a large 6x6 (right in photo). Then chopped the tree into small pieces.

Once it had cleared the roof. We tied a rope to it and Spencer pulled it away from the house. Above is Spencer's Panorama photo of the aftermath.

Special Thanks to MaryAnn for watching Cayman (and prying for us) throughout this process.

Now we have a ton of birch which I plan to make stuff from and sell.