Roses, roses, roses

I get to see these roses first thing every morning. I get up to feed the cats and look out my picture window from the kitchen. (Our kitchen is located in the front part of the house.) I love roses, especially when they are in the budding stage. Some of them look their best when they are just budding.










And this is the "Cancun" hybrid tea. (single rose)


This is a group of "Cancun" roses.
And this is the "Mojave" hybrid tea.

Miniature roses from our front yard

This year seems to be a banner year for our roses. My husband has been the gardener of late since he is retired. He apparently fertilized at the right time, and now we are reaping the benefits. We have miniature roses along the front pathway. I'll have to take a picture of the front yard one of these days so everyone can get the proper perspective of the pathway and the distribution of the miniature roses.

I need help identifying this bird

Can someone please identify this bird to the left for me? I would really appreciate it. I took this picture when I visited my aunt in Rockport, Texas by a fishing dock. The bird was perched on top of a fishing boat.

At the same time, I also saw a snowy egret, also on top of another fishing vessel.

Killdeer in the city?

My son and I were taking his two dogs for a walk Sunday afternoon. While we were on a well-used, main thoroughfare (2 lanes on each side), across from the hospital where I work, and a few hundred yards from a busy freeway, a couple of birds came out from "nowhere." They ran out to the center of the street, and started flip-flopping. I then realized that this is something killdeer do to lure one away from their nest. I was dumb-founded to say the least, and I didn't have my camera out and ready. But I made sure I had my camera ready when returning from our walk. I found the birds darting back and forth in a cul-de-sac off the main street from where I had seen them previously. At least they didn't do their flip-flopping this time. I will assume it was a mama and papa. Anyway, after trying several times to get a decent picture of one of the adults, I then saw a little "peep." Oh, he was so cute! He looked like a miniature version of his parents, of course. And trying to get a picture of him/her was even more difficult than its parents.

What surprised me most was that there was only one offspring - or at least that is all that I saw. I am curious to see if this should happen again the next time I go walking in that direction. I wonder if I could find the nest. Would killdeer make their nest in a garden of flowers and hedges up against a building? Or would they build their nest on an empty plot of ground that is located just across from this building?

Falcon Cam

For folks interested in newly hatched peregrine falcons, and want to catch some live camera action, here is a link to Jose Fernando and Clara, San Jose City Hall's resident falcons. The camera was placed there and is being maintained by the city of San Jose and the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group. There are three eyasses that hatched the last week of April, and were banded on May 18th. I happened to connect that morning while the birds were being banded. Wow! Quite an experience. I'm sure glad I wasn't the one banding them; Jose and Clara were unhappy parents and stayed away while the eyasses were being banded, but flew by and pecked the guy several times when he was leaving the nest area. Really cool seeing that online.

http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=91/nest

Here is the link for the diary about Jose, Clara, and their 3 eyasses. And it was recently posted that there are two females and one male.

http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcameraSJ.htm

I try to check in with the camera about two or three times a day, usually in the mornings, and again in the afternoons when I get home from work.

This morning I found Clara (?) feeding her eyasses. Most mornings mama is not seen (probably out looking for food for her youngsters). And there have been times when "the folks in charge" move the camera so one can see the adults (one or the other) keeping guard on the ledge.

How fascinating to be able to watch what is going on -- all from my desktop!

A Newbie at Blogging

Hello
This is my first time attempting to create a blog of my own. I find the blogs I am currently subscribed to a lot of fun to read and quite inspiring. It's fun to share our thoughts and opinions with each other. I would like to share with others what I enjoy doing in my little corner of the world, and look forward to hearing from others.

For my first entry into blogging I would like to share with all of you that I am a medical librarian, working at one of the larger community hospitals in San Jose, Calif. I really enjoy what I am doing, and at times would like to share some of my opinions about my daily routines in the medical library, as well as share some thoughts and "dreams" I have to make the library a better place - my little corner of the world.

I would also like to share my personal "corner of the world" with all of you. I really enjoy birding, but time limits me to mostly backyard birding. Nonetheless, I really enjoy watching the birds in my small urban back yard.

I have been married for almost 40 years, and my husband and I have lived in Denver and Castle Rock, Colorado. We have lived in Cupertino and now San Jose, Calif. We also spent a few years living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have thoroughly enjoyed living in all these places. I always find things to see and do, and enjoy returning to these locations. I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where there is nothing better tasting than steamed Maryland blue crabs, seasoned with Old Bay seasoning.

As for my family, Dave is my husband -- we will be celebrating our fortieth anniversary in July. Dave retired early (at 62), and enjoys being a "house husband." More about him in other posts. We have a daughter and a son, who both happen to be living with us -- both are still single at 34 and 35 -- I do believe that is their choice. Our daughter is a church secretary at the church we belong to; and our son teaches math in a community college. More about them, too, in future posts.

As for pets, well -- let's see. My son has two dogs, both huskies. My daughter has two cats. And I have two cats. So that's a total of six pets in our household. We did have a husky until recently, but lost him to hemangiosarcoma back in April. Can you imagine having 3 dogs and 4 cats in one household? And especially since my son's two dogs don't like cats! :)

Here is a picture of Kodiak whom we recently lost. We only had him for a few years; we adopted him from the area's Husky Rescue group.