Chicks are up and out!

THURSDAY 8/30

The Concert Is Over, The Chick has left the building.

The adolescent Dove apparently took advantage of us being gone to the Utah Shakespeare Festival and his parents abdication of responsibility to have a house party. All that's left is a half empty 6-pack of Lowenbird and a nest full of droppings.

SUNDAY & MONDAY 8/26-27

The chick is finally moving around on its own. The parents are leaving it alone for short periods and for the most part we don't see much. Concealment is part of the game and the chick is quiet and hunkered down. Except while waiting for meals.

The chick is grown to about half size and how the parents sat on top of it until just last Friday or Saturday we don't know.

Feeding time is a bit frenetic and then the parent sits away from the nest for a while.

I got my first picture of Baby out of the nest.

Too bad I missed the flight lesions but here's Baby outside the nest.

SUNDAY 8/19


At least one egg (remember, I don't know if there were two) hatched this morning. The angle is bad but things should improve when there is more movement.

MONDAY

Papa has been out all night down on the Strip. He rests a moment before flying in for the hand off.


There is just enough room to maneuver before Mama is off to the Day Spa.

Papa starts right off with the hungry chick.

More as it happens
Bob

I Left My Heart...

Trudy and I took a rather nostalgic trip back to San Francisco last week. We stayed in the same hotel (Le Petit Auberge) and had dinner in the same restaurant (Rue le Pic) as 24 years ago.

Our first visit, however was the 43 story roof of the building where Douglas Baker is the Asst Manager.

I won't bore you with all the details, just the new stuff.
The new deYoung Museum is fantastic.

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, it is clearly an acquired taste but a good one for me. Wrapped in a copper sheathing pirced by holes it presents a challenge that works well with the grounds.

The Observation Tower may not be an easy place for everyone but what a view.


Then it was the San Francisco Botanical Garden and a show that included a "Bat Flower" in a tropical plant and orchid show.

A walk along the ocean near Cliff House followed by a visit to the "Beach Chalet" in Golden Gate park with Mike and Trish Prior. The WPA murals by Lucien Labaudi are a real treat!

The building has been rebuilt and "saved" more than once. It is in the western end of Golden Gate Park. The city asked Olmstead to design what is now the park and he declined saying the location was to desolate.

Our last lunch on the trip was at Aqua on California Street

One last quirk of the city - How do Gold, Sagely, and Monastery go together?

More as it happens
Bob

Dove Update

Mama & Papa Dove are still in residence and although we cannot see the eggs, there should be two.
Of course, the "sitting on the eggs" out here is not to keep them warm but to keep them cool. I assume that with temperatures that go up as high as 110 that even momentary uncovering would be fatal.
They are very dilligent about the morning and evening transfer (it's so quick that I have not gotten a picture yet) and the sitting parent seems to always be in place.
Sofia came over last evening and snapped this picture at the last of twilight.
Mama's in for the night.

More as it happens
Bob