In the Tangle

 

Eastern Fox Squirrel on Fuchsia Vines, Golden Gate Heights

I probably wouldn't have posted anything today if I hadn't noticed that one of the pied-billed grebe chicks has hatched at Blue Heron Lake. At first glance, I thought I had lucked out: the mama was off the nest. Now I could get a better look at the number of eggs in it (there must have been at least six; now at least five), but then I spotted the little hatchling, the former resident of egg #6 (or more likely egg #1).

It's not getting any easier to see the nest through the tangle of branches, which is almost certainly a good thing. I try to mask my efforts to photograph the nest when people are walking past, and no one has even asked me what I'm looking at. Just another goofy photographer looking at a bug or a leaf or something boringly artsy.

Before heading out on my bike ride I looked out the back window to see if the bird bath needed a refill, and that's when I spotted the squirrel climbing around on my neighbor's lilly pilly tree and the tangle of fuchsia vines that have woven their way among its branches and pretty much everywhere else.

Squirrel on the Vine

Anna's hummingbirds often visit the fuchsia flowers.

I was surprised the first time I saw a squirrel eating the lilly pilly berries. It's kind of funny to watch them nibble away at a single berry, then scamper off to do something else. It's not like there's a shortage of berries when they're in season. The tree is native to Australia, and it makes its flowers during our winter. 

This little chickadee fluttered through the tree's dense branches before breaking into the open and quickly taking off.

As pretty as the berries are, I kind of hate the lilly pilly tree, to be honest. All those berries fall into our yard, and dozens of them sprout and have to be weeded out, one by one. That's why a squirrel eating one berry before moving on doesn't get me too excited.

Junior!

When mama returned to the nest, she didn't acknowledge the youngster in any way that I could discern. The hatchling worked its way around to mama's back and seemed to want to climb up there but couldn't quite get a grasp. I'm sure it's going to get more chaotic as more chicks hatch.

Video clip of the little hatchling trying to find a place to relax.

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