During West Virginia's win over Washington, I zipped out to the "blind" to see if Olive was checking things out. At 5:55PM, she was fully in the opening - I could even see her little claws holding onto the bottom of the entrance hole. She is unbelievably alert and has the loveliest yellow eyes. It was still very light out and there were 2 House finches at the feeders, which, BTW, she was watching with great interest! Suddenly, two scurrilous Scrub jays appeared at the feeder, sending everyone else hurrying away. One of the jays spotted Olive, who looked like she was blooming at the opening of the box. She wisely disappeared into the box and the jay lost interest. A few minutes later, just before the rain started, Olive re-appeared at the opening. I've rigged the scope so that, unless she hears us come outside, she has no idea we're watching. She seemed content just to look around and wait for whenever was the appropriate moment to fly.
The game became more interesting, so Olive wasn't watched for several minutes and, when Ivan went out around 6:45, it was raining pretty hard and she was gone. Our motion-sensitive light had come on, so we speculate that she flew through the sensitive area and made the light come on. Did not, however, actually see her leave. Her breeding state still eludes us. Eggs? Babies? No clue. We continue our ephemeral vigil.
