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We've been hellaciously busy, largely away from home, and even more busy when at home because we've been out so much. One result is that the "lawn" out back has become excessively long and unruly. Last night, my wife gently hinted that it had better drift up to the top of my to-do list, or she would do it herself.
Ain't gonna happen. I'm Saved! Follow me while I back away from the lawn and I'll explain.
First The Oranges
I just went out to begin the process. It starts by picking up all of the fallen oranges around the orange tree, That is normally followed by mowing and/or using a string trimmer as appropriate. I retrieve the oranges by raking them into a long-handled dustpan and then dumping them in a bucket. Some go to the table and some get cut up into the compost.
So I'm out there on maybe my fifth orange, ignoring our noisy CA Towhee when I noticed something odd - an irregular grey-brown ball about the size of a handball. Upon focusing on it, I saw that it had a bill and eyes and was about six inches from the orange I was getting ready to scoop. It was a fledgling towhee, almost completely tailless and totally flightless. I grabbed the target orange and began to step away when it unfroze and hopped off into some taller grass for better concealment. Suddenly it all came together, adult Towhees hopping along the ground with seed in their beaks and constantly giving that obnoxious call of theirs can very well mean that Junior is on the ground.
Towhees Yes, Mowing No!
Towhees fledge from the nest while still flightless, and are cared for by their parents on the ground for several days until they are finally able to fly. They aren't along in this respect. Though I have tried to create a "brush-pile" simalcrum in one corner of the yard for such birds, lizards and the like to hide in, this one is out in the open, hiding in the tall grasses and other plants. Clearly then, I should not, and cannot mow the lawn. Perhaps neither should you, not for a while, at least not without prior close inspection.
For what it is worth, this fledge may have already been on the ground a day or two, but it hasn't been there too long, so this is a rough date for Towhee fledges in Castro Valley, CA. How about you, anything in or on your lawn(s)? What is going on in the world around you, and where is it that you are experiencing whatever it is that you are experiencing?