Evanston: birds on our balcony; World Cup
Evanston: birds on our balcony; World Cup
Our condo has two balconies: a real one that you can go out and sit on, and a Juliette, which is a door opening onto a wrought iron railing beyond a 4” ledge.
There are planter boxes on both in which Carol grows flowers during the summer.
(In case anyone remembers a post of a month ago, eliminating Carol completely from this journal has proven too awkward and inane.)
Last week she found a bunch of twigs in the Juliette planter. She was about to throw them away, when she realized that they might be a bird’s nest.
A few days later she and a bird, presumably a dove, frightened each other out of their respective wits when Carol started to water the flowers. Bird fluttered off; Carol leapt back. Fortunately. Forward is three stories down which isn’t a problem for a bird.
When Carol recovered, she found a small white egg about the size of a quarter in the nest.
She closed the door, and a few minutes later the dove returned.
We are not knowledgable about birds, but have since read online that doves often make a rough nest about 25’ above the ground and usually lay two eggs, which take two weeks to hatch. The male sits on the eggs during the day; the female at night.
As far as we know there is still only one egg in this nest.
The photo above was taken during the day, so presumably is of the male. If you have difficulty in seeing him, that’s the way he wants it.
We have observed the changing of the guard in late afternoon.
I check several times a day. Someone is always there just on the other side of the glass door.
We try to mind our own business, but Carol occasionally has to water the plants that provide the birds protection. Yesterday she was able to do so during a few minutes when both were gone.
We await developments.
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American television commentators were disappointed in the World Cup final. I was not. It is not by chance that Spain repeatedly wins matches 1-0; and the tension as the second half drew toward an end and the match went into an extra thirty minutes with all the players knowing that a goal would bring the greatest sport victory in their respective nation’s history and make them heros for life was tremendous.
While soccer is my favorite game, I don’t expect it will rival traditional sports in the United States for a long time, if ever. That’s all right. Soccer is doing pretty well without a big following here.
It won’t in New Zealand either.
A poll on the NZ HERALD site shows that roughly half of all Kiwis had no interest in the World Cup after their national team was eliminated.
As a nation they can now get on with staging what is to them the real World Cup: rugby union in 2011.
A bit of trivia: What was the only undefeated team at the 2010 World Cup?
The answer: New Zealand.
Monday, July 12, 2010