Nature Time...Pigeon, Purple Martins and a Cow Killer

We had a nice day today. After spending some volunteer time this morning we went to visit a friend. The kids had a great time and of course us moms talked books and homeschool stuff. After a while she told us she had a pigeon nesting on her plant outside. So of course we had to go see. There is momma but after a little light watering she moved and we saw some of what we thought were the ugliest babies. LOL

Two babies starting to get their feathers but still a bit fuzzy. They lay there quietly while all the kids climbed a ladder to take a peek. All the while mom was checking us out in a tree close by. I guess she didn't trust us.

This is a white-winged dove. If you click on the picture you can see a blue color around the eye. Pretty neat! We hadn't noticed the blue till I made the picture bigger on the computer.

We also saw Purple Martins. These birds are in the swallow family but

the blue on it is beautiful. You can only see a little blue on the head of some of the birds but believe me that I tried and tried to get a better picture. I want one of these purple martin homes.

Last but not least....have you seen a Cow Killer (aka Red Velvet Ant, Red Wasp). Although this looks like an ant it is from the wasp family. So why is it called a Cow Killer? Well those that are unfortunate enough to get stung say that the pain could kill a cow. I know I would never want to get stung by something like that. OUCH!!! The female lays her eggs next to the larva of a bumble bee in the nest and the future cow killer had food to grow up on.

Isn't the color amazing? The boys enjoyed our nature finds today. We looked up information on the internet and in my large assortment of ID books. Oh and I did check out iBird on my iPod and found the Purple Martin. We all took turns hearing it also. Did I mention that I liked my iBird program? Oh, yes, I did.