Hawks, a tomato and other stuff

 The hawks have returned. There is a Eucalyptus citrinus (Lemon Scented Eucalyptus) on the other side of the back fence that has a nest waaaaayy up in the topmost branches. This particular type of Eucalyptus isn't very full and bushy so the branches tend to look more Dr. Suessian with the leaves all clustered to the ends and droopy. Very nice tree but back on point, there is a nest up there that I originally thought was a hawk nest but when the hawks went away the crows/ravens (still can't keep them straight) seemed to have moved in.

So now that the hawks are back I suspect it is their nest and the crows were taking advantage of a dead chick maybe? From what I've researched it's probably a Red Shouldered Hawk and last year it was a pair so hoping they're coming back to the same nest again. As much as they are a top predator and people complain they kill birds, rabbits and mice...excuse me..what would you rather have in your backyard? Birds know to sit in a tree and be quiet if they know there's a hawk around, the mice and rabbits, snakes too, are mostly evening/daytime foragers. Natural pest control.

Now on to the garden. speaking of shoulders, the tomatoes are still cracking on the tops (called the shoulder) and you can see in the pictures it still shows a little green. From what I remember this is, believe it or not, sunburn on a tomato.

Still tasty, just have to cut the top part off. It looks like a hole on the top right one but that's just the stem part left over after I tried to pull it off just tugging on the sepals (the green collar leaves).

I decided not to water because it was cooler this morning but will try and get out there in the evening. The zucchini is still growing thankfully and an example of how the male flowers are taller to catch the pollinators for the infant female flower below.

Still growing good!

It is very obvious the male flower will open long before the female flower. This is on the right hand, smaller bush so I may even cut some of the leaves away to make room for it. Need to find a tiny container and get my paint brush out to collect the pollen when it opens. I looked it up and the pollen can be good for up to a month. Need to find out if I should keep it cold or just cool somewhere. 

This certainly has been an adventure in vegetable gardening. Wish I had the space and supplies to do more justice for veggies. Fall is coming so we will see what happens. I think for sure I'm going to harvest what I can from the jalapeños then yank it. It isn't doing very good, wilting in the morning after only a few hours of sun. Green as all get out but the fruit is puny. Need to bulk up the nutrients ore my bell peppers are going to suffer the same fate.

It's going to be hot again today with a trend of cooling down over the next week. Still insufferable in the middle of the day. Time to go do errands, grab lunch and scoot on home with AC and fans.