Baby Cockatiels

Not sure how many of you know , but we have 2 cockatiels hear in Vintage Husband land.

Poppy our male. Pictured below. He came to us through our neighbor across the street.

The neighbor works construction, and Poppy flew onto his shoulder at a job site. After bringing him home, it was decided that Poppy was too much for his family to take care of along with their two children.

Next up is our female, Bird-Bird. We purchased her from the Bird Store.

Bird-Bird has been with us now for close to two years. She is also close to 2 years old. We are not sure how old Poppy is, but we believe he is slightly older that Bird-Bird.

Last year Bird-Bird and our male at that time Bob, had 7 eggs. None of those eggs turned out to be fertile. Bob passed away shortly after that. Fast forward to this year. Bird-Bird and Poppy have 4 eggs which as of Saturday all hatched.

Looks like we have one baby that will be a Pied Cockatiel like mom and 3 that will be gray like dad. The Pied (Yellow) baby is the first one to hatch and is therefore the biggest.



It is surprising how much care the male gives to the babies. It is definitely a 50/50 relationship. Sometimes it even seems like Poppy spends more time with the babies than Bird-Bird. It has really been quite an educational experience for all of us.

Stay tuned to my blog, I will try an update this as things progress.

TVH

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5-5-09 update - we started hand feeding the babies today. Man do they grow fast.




Proud daddy Poppy looks on.....


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5/14/09
Things are going great. The babies just keep getting bigger. We have started to hand feed them, but Poppy and Bird-bird still feed them as well.



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5/20/09



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5/24/09
Man the babies are getting so big so fast. Almost the size of the parents, the oldest 2 fledged today. As we tried to hand feed them, the oldest jumped up and flew around the kitchen and landed on top of the cabinets. Not long after that, the 2nd oldest also flew around the kitchen as well.

The first born

2nd oldest

All the babies on the perch inside the cage

Petaluma Antique Faire and the North California Coast

Today, the family and I headed out of Sacramento and to the quaint little town of Petaluma for their bi-annual Antique Faire. Located one hour away from Sacramento and 30 minutes north of San Francisco, we planned to make a day of it. Off to a late start, we rolled into town at 9:00am. After finding a spot to park on a side street, we joined the other shoppers in beautiful historic downtown Petaluma. With close to 200 hundred vendors, there was plenty to see and buy.




Several street musicians were performing, including Petaluma Pete and his upright piano.









After a little shopping and a picnic lunch, we continued on to the ocean. We drove through the small town of Tomales, located on Hwy 1. After passing through Tomales, we headed over to

the families favorite Northern California beach destination, Dillons Beach.

In the picture below, you can just make out the trailers of Lawson's Landing situated on Tomales Bay.




My kids love the ocean. Let me repeat that, they LOVE the ocean. Jake especially. He never wants to leave. Today was kind of cool, with a constant breeze rolling in off the water.

But as you can see, it didn't stop the kids from getting knee deep in the ocean and rolling around on the sand dunes.


Never one to miss an opportunity to do some birding, I was able to catch a couple photos. Seen below is an Osprey that was gliding along the edge of the dunes before heading out over the water in search of a meal.
There were several Marbled Godwit's searching the sand for a snack.


After chasing Jake down, he decided to walk all the way down the beach looking for some tide pools, we started heading back toward home.
Along the way we stopped at a yard sale and several antique stores in Petaluma. In no real hurry to get home, we took a detour through Sonoma and Napa, but didn't stop. We just drove through and enjoyed the view of all those vineyard's and grape vines that line the road as you wind your way along Hwy 121. Sorry no pics, I was too busy enjoying the scenery.


TVH

Easter at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area

Happy Easter everyone! What better way to spend a gorgeous day like today, than by doing a little bird watching! The Boy and I went out to the Yolo Bypass Wild Life Area this morning to see what we could see. The rice fields are drying up and birds are migrating back to their summer haunts. I thought it would be nice to see who has left and who is still hanging around.

Before we left, Jake spotted this giant moth on the front of the house! I need to find out what kind it is. It is definitely big!

Yesterday I got this pic of a cedar waxwing. So hard to get a picture of these guys. They are always in the tree tops.
These pictures are in no particular order. These first ones are of some White Faced Ibis. Really beautiful birds. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.

This White Crowned Sparrow was sitting in this pretty yellow bush.
A Western Kingbird sitting on a wire. He flew off when he saw me, but I got a great shot of him in mid air.


Always popular at the Causeway, a Black Necked Stilt.
This was a lifetime bird for me today. A Sora. It is a part of the Rail family. It is very reclusive and rarely seen. Thanks to Jake we not only saw it, but got this picture.
Here we have a Snowy Egret.
Here's a bird I haven't seen at the Yolo Causeway before, a Ring-Necked Pheasant!
A very common site today, hundreds of Red-Winged Blackbirds. I did see a Yellow Headed Blackbird , but was unable to get a picture.
Male Red-Winged Blackbird.
Female Red-Winged Blackbird
This Northern Harrier was hopping out on the fields chasing something!
Lots and lots of Western Meadowlarks today.

Here is another bird in large numbers right now. The Marsh Wren.
If you look inside my poorly drawn circle, you'll make out a Marsh Wren nest
A Mallard Duck gave us a fly-by and then came in for a landing.

Now here we have a Lesser Yellow-Legs followed by what I believe is a Greater Yellow-Legs. The size of the bird is about the only difference.

I spotted this Great Egret off in the distance and was hoping he would give us a show of his beautiful plumage, but to no avail. A white morph of a Great Blue Heron.
Great Blue Heron trying to avoid us.
These guys were in the wrong spot for a decent picture, but I believe these are Long-Billed Dowitchers. With the sun still behind them, it was really hard to tell what they were other than the long bill and short legs.
Another guy I haven't seen at the Yolo Basin before, a Double Creted Commorant hiding on the telephone pole.
A Cinnamon Teal Duck, still quite a few of these guys hanging around.
A regular around the pump house at the Basin, a Black Pheobe.
And finally, some American Avocets still lounging around before migrating.

Another fine day spent bird watching at the Yolo Basin Wildlife Area.

As always, have another great week!

TVH