Ah, I take the sun for granted. I had planned to go birding this morning for a few days now (when I could set aside a good chunk of time to head to a good spot)… only to wake up to overcast skys and drizzles. I am, admittedly, a fair-weather birder. So suffice it to say, I’ll just be blogging about something else today, rather than my day’s birding.

My girl Sara recently started keeping chickens in her semi-rural backyard, and was delighted to tell me that “my bird” (one she had graciously let me name) Bella had laid the first egg! She has 6 chickens now, and so far my Isabella is the only one to have laid… but she’s laying ever day! How very exciting!

A couple weeks ago when we were out to lunch she asked me how eggs were formed. Bella’s second egg looked much more like a water balloon than a real egg, and she wanted to know where the mistake had happened. She also seemed perplexed that such a complex process occurs inside a chicken’s body. It is pretty amazing, I’ll admit. I tried to explain, wracking my brain back to grad school where I learned the process in intimate detail, but think I failed to do a sufficient job.

Now it hits me… spring… eggs… empty blog post… How about I describe the egg-making process? Ok, so the eggs aren’t the pretty plastic or yummy chocolate ones more typically associated with spring, but it’s not too much of a stretch, eh? :)

Ok, here we go. Be warned, this is science-heavy!

First, let’s find a diagram. The whole system is called the oviduct.

                                                                                                                             photo from The University of Arizona, IACUC

First step, an ovum (the yolk) is released from the ovary and immediately enters the infundibulum. It is here for only about 30 minutes as it is moved by ciliary action (like phlegm in our throats… sorry I don’t have a better example) to the magnum region of the oviduct.

In our diagram, the magnum is the “albumin-secreting region.” Our ovum hangs out here for the next three hours or so getting a nice coating of albumin. This albumin, of course, is the egg white we are familiar with.

Now, our albumin-covered yolk heads into the isthmus region for the next hour where the shell membranes are deposited. When my friend’s egg came out looking like a water balloon, this was where the process stopped for that egg. The membranes are just a thin coating that keeps everything together that has oxygen-permeation capabilities. Next our egg heads into the uterus region.

Here the egg will spend the next 20 hours or so getting its outer shell as well as any pigmentation that may occur. Of course this depends on the species of bird.

Well, there’s your quick-and-dirty review of how an egg is formed. I did skip over a HUGE part of the process… the formation of the yolk! It’s pretty amazing in itself, but I think I’ll save it for another post. Trust me, you’ll never look at an egg yolk the same again!

Hope this was informative!  It’s nice to take a step back every now and then to appreciate where things we see everyday actually come from!

Yep, it’s been a long time.  I apologize.  Let’s move on, shall we?  :-)

Ah spring!

I went for a quick trip to a section of the Baylands that I had not visited before.  It’s just off of Highway 101, and pretty close to my house, so I think it’s a little silly I hadn’t been there! 

It was a day full of wrens.  Upon arrival, I was met by a chorus of marsh wrens singing their little hearts out. 

I love listening to these guys, I think they sound kind of like the RainBird sprinklers that are reminiscent of my school days…

They are singing so much, of course, because they are having those lustful thoughts that come with spring.  These reeds are just the perfect material (mixed with the mud at their bases) for these wonderful pendulum nests that will be EVERYWHERE in another month or so.  As it turns out, I only found this one (though honestly, I was looking for birds — not their nests — today).

And just look at all the material available!

The reeds surround small ponds which are a haven for neat waterbirds.  My favorite find of the day… a Cinnamon Teal!  Oh my goodness, look at those eyes!!

He didn’t hang around too long though; I was surprised just how skittish he was.

Another favorite of mine is the Bufflehead.  They are very easy to spot from far away for two reasons: one, the are tiny compared to most of the other ducks and such on the water (mostly Mallards today); and two, their heads are brilliantly white and are like beakons of light even on a sunny day!

Usually there are a bazillion sparrows flitting about, and I thought there was a strangly small number of them around.  Perhaps it was just later in the day and they were napping after feasting on seeds all morning?

Sigh.  It’s been soooo long since I’ve been birding, my skills are seriously lagging.  I believe this is a juvenile Song Sparrow, but I’m just not sure.  I’ve looked at all the pictures in my trusty field guide at least three times, and I’m still unsure.  Ah well.  He’s still a cutie!

Until next time… and I promise it won’t be as long! :-)

Someday I’ll have my own backyard.  I mean, I have one now, but it’s TEENY and I can’t really just landscape it however I please (we’re renting it).  So, someday I’ll be faced with the challenges of making my backyard a certified NWF Backyard Habitat… just not yet.

Now imagine my surprise when I realized that there was an amazing amount of poop in the plants hanging on my borrowed shepherd’s hooks.  It was intriguing.  Yeah that’s right, I found poop intriguing.  It meant that there was a bird hanging out here long enough and often enough to have to relieve itself enough for me to have a nice pile of poop on my plants.

So I started paying extra attention.  I left the door open (much to my pup’s delight… she LOVES being outside and rooting around in the tanbark) to listen for calls while I did mundane tasks such as cleaning up muddy paw prints off the floor.  It didn’t take long for me to hear it.

I looked outside, and lo and behold!  Sitting pretty on my shepherd’s hook was a Black Phoebe!  No wonder… Phoebes are known to hunt bugs from a particular perch and return to that perch (as opposed to flying to a new perch from which to hunt).  It was with great delight I then watched Fibi (as I was soooooooo creative to name my new backyard resident) hunt the bugs that live in my tiny patch of grass.  It was with even greater delight I realized that she was probably going to snag a few mosquitoes in the evenings!  Ooooo do I despise getting bitten by mosquitoes…

Without further ado, here’s my new friend!

Can you find the bird in this picture?

Ok, you probably found it right away, but just in case you need a hint… it’s this little guy, just hanging out.

I’m assuming it’s a juvenile Anna’s Hummingbird since they are 95% of the hummers you’ll see around here.