Birds Nesting 2014

Longlens, awesome photo!

I need to get my Barn Swallow photos put on the 'puter to share.

We've been collecting the moulted feathers from our Pekin and save them for the Swallows. Because there's some less appreciated birds that like them too, we put small piles out where the Swallows are and watch them come after the feathers. It is so funny to watch how one of the pair will perch and sing its encouragement to the one swooping for the feathers. There is something special about being surrounded by swallows in flight.

We risked mildly disturbing our front door Barn Swallows to put some wood ash on and around the nest. Last summer, we learned this can prevent mites. Our first experiment was in the Tree Swallow box after the nest was built and we did not see any mites on the young, like we did on previous Barn Swallows. I hope this works for them. Our door Swallows came back pretty quickly, so we are not concerned we gave them terrible nerves. :)

Went to the Black-crowned Night Heron Rookery this week to check on the young ones. A couple have left the nest and seem ready to take off, most are still in the nest and some Mom's are still sitting on the nests.

OMG that first photo is hilarious. love goofy looking chicks.

I agree Mrs_Ed. The chicks are goofy babies alright.

I agree that they look funny. My 4 year old Grandson who loves dinosaurs thinks the second picture looks like a Dino.

Had a Mallard take up residents in our flower garden three weeks ago. Well yesterday afternoon the ducklings showed up. These shots were about an hour after we saw the first one.

Cuteness overload!

I have been enjoying seeing all of the nests and babies you have all been posting. I need some lessons in nest finding. LOL. I know there are nests on my property, but I just can't find them.

I saw a very young Eastern Bluebird begging for food from Dad. He was barely able to fly, but he did go down to the ground and pick up a morsel or two on his own.

I also saw this female Pine Warbler gathering nest material. She would fly down and fill her beak with bits of a thistle flower. The would fly off in the pine trees and then she would be back in a very short time. So, I know she isn't going far.

The cardinals are feeding youngsters (dark beaks) at the feeder.

Where are all these birds nesting? I don't know.

If anyone has any tips for finding nests, please let me know. I don't want to get too close to disturb the birds, but I would like to see where they are nesting.

Sounds like good advice, Chillybean. Thanks!

Patti

Hi everyone. I've been terribly busy with other chores, and I wasn't able to add more nesting update from my garden. Not many pictures. But the good news is; my Tree Swallow nest was a success. Apparently the chicks pledged several days ago. I did see the little chicks in the nest, until one morning there were no activity around the vicinity, I knew then they have flown the scoop. lol.

Our North Tree Swallows have finally gotten their act together and mama is sitting on her eggs. Mom and Dad are taking turns at the box, so she can grab a quick meal. I've read conflicting info about what dad does. Either, he will only guard the eggs, even perching on the nest, others say he will sit on eggs. I don't know, but we seem to have one male and one female, eggs being tended to and that is all that matters at this point.

We have a pair of Tree Swallows in the south yard now and they built their nest lickety split and were gathering feathers yesterday. I learned big white feathers don't work. The Mrs. could not get that feather in the box after about a half dozen tries before she just dropped it.

Here are our latest babies. Bluebirds. The parents arrived later than the North Tree Swallows, but with the Swallows "foolishness". the BB's eggs hatched earlier.

Picture one is that w--i--d--e Barn Swallow nest. They took forever on that thing. When my son climbed up a ladder to put in some wood ash, he said it almost looked like two cups up there. That is the first pair to build on the house this year.

Around the corner to the north is the second Swallow nest and it is a single cup. Picture two is one of that pair looking up toward its nest.

We also have a pair that just started building on the south side of the house and they look like they might do what the front porch Swallows did.

Other than a few dots here and there, I've never seen this before. Yesterday a friend called because she's got Barn Swallows building on their porch. She said it is a long line of mud.

It will be terribly funny if we end up having Barn Swallows on all four sides of the house. I am glad they do not mind people. But I am curious- why the sudden interest? We had one pair that nested on the porch in 2012. Plus there is one pair in our 3-sided building out back and in each of the two old grain bins is one pair of Barn Swallows. Mental math here.... 6 pairs of Barn Swallows! The 3-sided building could have more than one pair as they've done it before.

This may be last years nest instead of this years -
but I wanted to show everyone how the Curve-bill Thrashers nest in Cactus

pollengarden, the Curve-bill Thrashers nest among the thorns is very interesting! Thanks for sharing that with us. Chillybean, it's cool to have various type of Swallows to nest around the property. Congrats on the BBs nesting this year.

Had a Robin build under our deck. Here are some shots from the last week. They grow fast.....

longlens, those are fabulous shots of the Robins. How fast? Are they big enough to fledge any day now?

So far, I've only one brood of Tree Swallows that successfully fledged this spring. Predators kept other birds from nesting in the provided nestboxes. It appears that the Chickadees abandoned their eggs! :(

pix was taken from a distance, it's not clear but there were little Tree Swallows babies in the bird-house gourd.

Lily_love they are just over a week old. Should be around a little longer. Not sure I will be home when they fledge but there's always hope.

These House Finches are in my neighbors hanging planter and started hatching yesterday.

You guys are so lucky, I'd love to see what you all have shown us.

Hack

I hope it isn't too late in the season, but bluebirds are filling one of the nest boxes. I have enjoyed watching them. The male flies back and forth with the female. He is in "guard" mode while the female gathers nest material and builds the nest. He ran off a red-headed woodpecker that got too close and has been running off another pair of bluebirds.

My first time to watch, so I'm getting nothing accomplished in our move.

Photos not so good. They are iPhone pictures of the back of my real camera. Lol. My computer is still packed.

From start to finish......

longlens, Fantastic collage of the "start to finish!" Would make a great poster for a classroom.

Kim, Congrats on the successful nesting of the Tree Swallows!

Chillybean, Your long Barn Swallow nest is amazing. Wonder why they did that. I love the pose on the photo you posed on 6/11 - so cute!

Now that I am on a real computer, I have processed a few Eastern Bluebird images. Instead of moving into the house I put on the fence, these two decided they wanted to use the one right outside the sunroom windows. I guess because they are closer to the feeders. I hope it is not too late in the season.

Mr. BB slacked off his job for just a few seconds and along came a Carolina Wren ...

1. It's okay dear, I'm watching. Just go work on the nest...
2. Uh oh. Where did he come from?
3. Hey, where are you. Who is this guy?
4. Just grabbing a quick bite of mealworms. I'll be back.
5. Well, hurry up.

Thank you, P_Edens. There was an adult on the floor of the porch today in that same pose. I am not sure what that was about, but it flew when approached, so its fine. I do not believe it is too late for the Bluebirds, as we have a second brood starting. One of the children checks the nest boxes every Monday and the BBs have four eggs in the same box they had an earlier brood.

That poor boy was soundly scolded by the South Tree Swallows today when he checked that box. They are not as calm as the Swallows we had to the North. He did not want to bother with taking a picture. I was wondering how far along they were developed.

Oh, we have no idea why the nest was built that way. My husband, just guessing, wonders if because babies fell out of the nest in 2012 that the parents made it wider this year. This is the time of year for bad mites and the parent Barn Swallows look to be itching like crazy. We think that is one reason babes fly out early, to escape all the bites.

During a recent storm some baby Orchard Orioles fell out of the nest. One died, probably from drowning in the flooded yard. :( Here is another after it was partially dried. We think the two are ok as the parents are still around and dad is singing. We do not know where the nest is, but based on location of the babes, we think the south yard.

Awe, what a cute little ball of feathers. I hope they do okay.

It is already very hot and muggy down our way, so that's why I'm worried. Some friends that live nearby have a BB box. The birds were on their fourth clutch last week, but the chicks didn't make it. They thought maybe it got too hot in the box. Mine didn't start building their nest until last week. We do live about 20 miles north of them, so maybe a tiny bit cooler.

Just saw some titmouses checking out the bluebird box.

P_Edens,

I was concerned for our Tree Swallows, but the heat only lasted a couple of days and the young are still being fed today. I did a quick search and Sialas.org had a page on dealing with heat.
http://www.sialis.org/heat.htm

I saw another page a couple of years ago when the heat skyrocketed and a bluebird landlord was concerned for his birds. He somehow quickly put an ice pack on top of the box in such a way that it would cool the inside. He then did something to his boxes in preparation for the next year, but I do not remember what.

Boxes need to be ventilated, but they also need to keep out the rain. We propped open the side of a Tree Swallow box during the last heatwave. Just a little and the parents didn't mind. We closed it when the rains came.

It is so hard trying to juggle everything. You want protection from critters, wrens and house sparrows so are told to put the boxes away from trees, but yet that shade would do so much good. I just want to pull my hair out sometimes trying to figure it all out. :)

Update from an earlier post. The babies in my neighbors planter have moved out of the nest and have taken over the entire planter. Should be leaving in a couple of days.

Our Barn Swallows fledged while we were away this weekend. I knew that would happen based on their activity level at the nest. I started calling them Little Taters. :) We came home late Sunday evening, and they were gone. Had no idea where they went, but I found them in the evening yesterday and they were in the same location this morning. I wish they were not so close to the road- seeing too many bird deaths lately from cars. :(

Here's Little Taters being fed and their nearby neighbors, Mama and young Bobolinks.

Great collage longlens.
Love the open mouths of all the 'Little Taters' on the fence Chillybean. Great shot.

I found this Cactus with a Thrasher nest in it several weeks ago, I was disappointed when I went back and it was abandoned. But then I realized she had just moved the nest to a better hidden spot.
1) Cholla cactus with Curved-bill Thrasher nests in it
2) Closeup, current nest in upper left corner, abandoned (or decoy?) nest in lower right corner

Oops! I forgot Dave's Garden adds a copy right to upper left. The bird's head is more-or-less underlining "Unauthorized use"

This message was edited Jul 19, 2014 7:50 AM