[EBB Sightings] a flurry of fledges

The last couple of times that I walked at Huckleberry
Preserve in the Oakland hills, I was hurried along by
scolding parents protecting their newly fledged young;
one family was of chickadees, the other wrentits.

This time, the kids were learning a bit of
independence. Today as I stood in the trail, two
Bewick's wren fledges flew in, perched low and close,
and began to preen. After several moments of her
offspring's oblivious naivety, Mom zipped by, flying
into a low tangle of branches, drawing her begging
kids after her as if pulled by strings. When they
safely had several layers of woven branches between
them and I, Mom slowly led them away, showing them
forage as she went. She paused briefly in her
parenting to do a lightening quick dust bath in the
trail; so hard to find time for personal grooming when
you have demanding young 'uns!

A bit earlier, as I sat on a secret bench in the
forest, a family flock of bushtits flew in under the
aural and visual cover of a low-flying helicoptor
(urban interface wildlife is nothing if not
adaptable). They hung upside down and fed on native
honeysuckle berries, whose vines laced through the
lichen covered oak limbs. 

It's a great time for all sorts of berries at Huck,
with thimbleberries, Himilayan blackberries and the
start of huckleberry season. I also jumped into the
multi-berry foraging mode, altho I eschewed the
honeysuckles.

Back home in the 'hood (Sheffield Village) the sky has
been filled with the high pitched begging cries of a
flegling red tailed hawk. Whine whine whine. If you
don't let 'em get a little hungry, they will never
learn to hunt on their own. If only the fledging of
human children was so easy!

Longing for the empty nest syndrome,

Debbie Viess
Oakland