Bird battles, tulips, chicks, neighbors

About a week ago, a pair of bluebirds were thinking about moving into the little red birdhouse. When they started building their nest in there, I thought it was a done deal. No, they moved on.

Two days ago, a pair of tree swallows settled on the house. They were serious about their nest building project, including swirling over my head while I was watering the garden. (Yes, we have the beginnings of a garden, and no rain means getting the hose working again.)

This morning, with aerial attacks and lots of squawking, a pair of house sparrows ousted the swallows. It was their house last year, but that just doesn't seem fair to take over a half-built nest.

No good pics of the bird battles (still going on) but I do have some fading tulips that still look great on top of the woodstove that I just used. We've had summery 80° temps for 2 days now, but I had left the windows open all night, and it was 57° in here yesterday morning.

There are still 10 healthy happy chicks in the garage. Without the red heat lamp, I can see their real colors, or maybe it's because their big girl feathers are starting to come out. They might indeed be 2 different kinds of chicken mutts—they don't all look alike anymore.

Warmer weather also means more opportunities to hang out with my favorite neighbor, Don on the Hill. Just look at that happy 14YO Woody face! He loves his neighbor (who feeds him cheese). 

Woody was supposed to be dead in March 2021. He's not.