There were five eggs, and I do believe I can make out five wee peepers here:
I hope these rascals appreciate that my fern is dying because I can not water it.
What’s goin’ on down yonder yer way?
*** Update ***
Commenter Davidh, who apparently knows how to use photoshop, has fixed this picture:
Shell
The sun actually came out today! Alas, I think that might be it for the rest of the week.
SiubhanDuinne
Cute! When did they hatch? (You may have said previously, but I either missed it or forgot.)
trollhattan
Awww, li’l floofy birdies! Hope mom and dad* have great success.
*Assuming dad hasn’t
shackednested up with another female birdie already. You know, men.ruemara
I am filling out my citizenship application & wondering if the back taxes I owe should be paid off before I file – which wouldn’t be possible before my green card needs renewal – or if the fact that I’m very much a reliable, disciplined payer is in my favor. Also, HA! because it asks if I was a ever a Nazi and this whole goddamned administration is American Third Reich. These questions are incredible. It asks if I was ever a prostitute or procured for prostitution. I’ve been in advertising and that is more hoeing than honest, hardworking sex workers. And Donald Trump would fail these questions.
Edited to add that I am also concerned because the parents are pushing me to do this now & have promised to pay. I’ve had them live up to a promise exactly twice in my life. IDK if I should get this started if they might weasel out.
pat
Have you seen the parents? Do you know if they are robins or sparrows or what?
Another Scott
@ruemara: Thank you for taking the trouble to join the rest of us Americans. We need more people like you – especially these days!!
Best of luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Fat Kate Middleton
So, yes, I count five, as well – but I can’t determine what kind they are. Robins?
opiejeanne
@ruemara: What Another Scott said.
I didn’t know you weren’t already a citizen but YAY!
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
It’s worth doing even if they back out at the last minute. Us jackals could probably find you an immigration lawyer willing to work cheap if worse comes to worst.
rikyrah
@ruemara:
Can’t wait for us to throw you a BJ Citizenship Party ??
Gvg
@ruemara: you need expert advice on how it works. Not sure we have the exact experts but if possible I think you need to find a good specialist lawyer and have a consulting session with him. I hope just a basic session won’t cost too much. Real numbers would help you plan.
Maybe there is a local support group of advocates and even others who did it recently?
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Oh, the housemate is actor, archeologist & lawyer. He said he will provide assistance if necessary and he has people he can ask questions to. It’s the scratch that’ll be an obstacle.
opiejeanne
@The Fat Kate Middleton: The eggs looked remarkably like some we were watching in a tall 40″ ceramic planter on our deck last spring. The parents were little house finches.
One morning, the day after the third egg was laid, they were gone and there was no evidence of anything climbing the post next to the planter and no other easy access so we think the crows got the eggs. .
Omnes Omnibus
@ruemara: Pay them.
dmsilev
So, I was at a concert this afternoon (LA Philharmonic, very nice) and was flipping through the leaflet of upcoming events and found this:
Let’s play ‘one of these is not like the others…’.
pat
@dmsilev:i
I actually had to read this three times to find “sur le nom d’Alain” and that is the only thing that stands out to me in that list.
Who the heck is Durefle??
dmsilev
@pat: Check the last entry on the list. Freddy Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody, arranged for concert organ.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
It sounds like she’s already on a payment plan for his taxes and is wondering if she should pay them in full before trying to get her citizenship.
Another Scott
@dmsilev: Excellent. Freddie and the rest of Queen deserves it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Yes, and I am suggesting paying full before she applies.
Aleta
@dmsilev: I remember the night one of them was performed live here.
burnspbesq
@pat:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Duruflé
A contemporary of Poulenc, Dutilleux, and Messiaen.
There’s a lot more to 20th Century French classical music than just Debussy and Ravel.
ruemara
@Omnes Omnibus: ugh. That’s not gonna happen. At least not before *checks calendar & does math* 2022. I just don’t have it.
@burnspbesq: Interesting, thanks.
Jager
We have three hanging planters on our porch, last year a pair of California Song Sparrows, built a nest in the center planter, we watered carefully with a sprayer, three eggs in the nest, they hatched, we could hear them peeping and the parents were frantically feeding the baby birds. One day while the mom and dad were out getting food, Mrs J saw our local brown hawk, he (i’m assuming its sex) flew to the 2nd level of the porch, then swooped in and ate the baby birds one by one while the song sparrows watched from one of the oaks, they were frantic, the hawk could have cared less. We have the nest, the inside is lined with Anze the Dog’s hair. It was kind of traumatic. This year we’ve discouraged the birds from building in the hanging plants by moving them around and getting into their faces while they are contemplating a nesting spot.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev: Bohemian Rhapsody RAWKS!
But yes, it is not like the others…
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev: Another thought…Reverend Lovejoy realizing that the “hymn” being played by the old lady organist might be “rock and or roll”.
Omnes Omnibus
@ruemara: Then your application will be denied. Sorry.
ruemara
@Omnes Omnibus: Good to know, thank you. That’s what I was worried about.
dmsilev
@Villago Delenda Est: I was tempted to stay for the recital (it’s tonight), but ultimately decided not to bother. It did sound intriguing.
opiejeanne
@Jager: I hadn’t considered a hawk being the villain of our own wee birdie tragedy; we don’t see many hawks here, just bald eagles and rarely over our property. Whatever it was it left the nest in tact and must have taken the eggs whole because there was not a bit of shell left behind.
Also, we saw one of the dastardly bastard crows steal a baby bunny from its mother, probably on its first trip out of the nest. That was really tragic, hearing the mother rabbit and the baby screaming, and even the squirrels were swearing.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Well that sucks. I guess it’s better to know now than to waste time and money on a doomed application.
rikyrah
You are good people, Cole.
What’s a fern…when you can provide safe haven for those cutiepies??
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: @ruemara: Not necessarily, according to the attorneys here. It does sound like as long as you’re still paying you can still get approved. USCIS has discretion here.
BruceFromOhio
@dmsilev: “intermission” ?
ruemara
@Yutsano: Interesting. I voluntarily set up the agreement and have been consistent. Plus, I have dimples. Cakewalk!
Aleta
Salamishah Tillet (@salamishah) is an associate professor of English and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-founder of A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit group that uses art to empower young people and end violence against girls and women.
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
I heard those — they came from the crowd on the small lawn that was directly in front of the church doors, which I heard was a crowd of charity workers who got the special seating for that reason. The UK has also had a pretty large influx of African immigrants, as represented in popular culture by people like Idris Elba and Chiewitel Ejiofor (and, like, half the cast of Black Panther, many of whom are the Black British children of African immigrants).
SgrAstar
@ruemara: how much $ are we talking about?
Cookie monster
@ruemara: As someone who navigated the whole marriage/greencard/citizenship thing personally, and without a lawyer, I do know that USCIS is a huge amount of discretionary power on applications.
One of the problems with this is to some degree it depends who you get and what kind of day they are having.
If you do go ahead now, be prepared to lose your application fees should it go badly, I guess.
joel hanes
crows are bloody-minded
Cole could feed those baby birds by feeding their parents a small tray of high-quality cracked safflower, black sunflower, and niger “finch mix”. on a post or hung from a tree clearly out of Steve’s range.
I’m at my Mom’s; she feeds and waters birds.
At breakfast-time this morning she had at the feeders and at the bird-bath northern orioles, ruby-throated hummingbirds, rose-breasted grosbeaks, house finches, white-crowned sparrows, chipping sparrows, fox sparrows, other sparrows I don’t know, blue jay, song sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, starlings, goldfinches, purple grackles, red-breasted, downy and red-headed woodpeckers. The winter cardinals and juncos and nuthatches all went north. We’ll go out tomorrow to check the bluebird houses.
Robins and cedar waxwings and catbirds call from the trees, but don’t feed, don’t even use the birdbath.
On the way into town I stopped and watched four wild turkeys cross the road; the old tom appears to have a broken tailfeather trailing aft, or maybe it’s a wing primary. Geese and mallards are flying along the streams.
——-
The world is so full of a number of things
That I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings
Patricia Kayden
@ruemara: If you’re on a payment plan and have been paying on a regular basis, you should be okay. I know that immigration attorneys are expensive but perhaps consulting with one just about this issue will be worth it for you.
J R in WV
@ruemara:
You could do a gofundme via this blog. We’ve had less distinguished commenters raise funds for an important thing. I would certainly support your citizenship, it looks like both a good investment for America and for friends of Rumara. Even if we sometimes fuss about wording, we never fuss about core values!
Think about it anyhoo. And best of luck regardless, we’ll all cheer you on!!
evodevo
@opiejeanne: Could quite well have been a black rat (or other)snake – they will climb trees to get to nests, though they are usually interested in babies rather than eggs…
DSC
@Jager: Simple solution: go to your local hardware or home improvement center and buy a big enough piece of chicken wire to create a “globe” to fit around the planter. Little birds in, big birds thwarted. We do this with our feeders to thwart determined cats.