pic from 3 days ago... looks very innocent, doesn't he? mama & papa wren are very busy feeding him.
I hope they'll get a brood of their own in after this.
Empty nests: Where have all the birdies gone?
Wow, great pictures, Jill! I do feel sorry for the poor bluebird parents...
Jill that first photo is absolutely hilarious!!!
I feel sorry for my wrens, also, and if it had just been up to me I might have removed the cowbird chick... but Joyanna made the call when she said, "we'll get to see a cowbird grow up!" Maybe they'll have a second clutch this summer.
Geez! Look at the size of that chick,s mouth!! A bottomless pit!
They must be born with the size mouth they will have as adults!
Nice close-ups, Jill. Save it for the next Photo Contest....
G.
At least it's a native bird, Jill, and it can't help it that it's a born bully.
Good point, Muddy... Joyanna said if it had been a starling, she wouldn't want it.
I'll have to try to get a photo with its mouth open really wide!
The first of the 3 porch robin babies fledged today! Boy, you see a touch of red on the breast one day, and they're gone the next!
Boy, those robins sure churn them out, don't they?!
I was thinking more about the cowbird and realized that, by rolling the eggs out of the nest, it at least saved the wren babies from possibly starving to death. Some of them, at least, wouldn't have made it.
Hah, I'm sure that's true... but if I had found wren eggs under that oversized hatchling, I'd have pushed it out of the nest! (oops! so clumsy of me!) I have to admit he's cute in that gawky way of nestlings.
Cornell says that cowbirds lay as many as 3 dozen eggs in a summer, so I wouldn't be surprised if you find another oddball egg. When you pick it up to take a closer look, you might drop it....oops!
I vote for-----"OOOPS!!" g.
Front porch robin chicks are down to 2!
This one says, "I'm NEXT!"
I took these photos from inside, through the little window over the door... didn't want to get out my stepstool and startle either nestling into an early flight!
the robins are exponentially cuter than that 'cowbird' ROFL. Amazing pic of the cowbird though.
It helps that I can take down the HB and get right in the cowbird's face! My wrens don't fuss much when I do... guess they know I mean no harm
.....or else they don't care!
Those are great photos of the robins, too! I haven't had any takers for my nest box with a clear side up against a window. Maybe I'll have to get some one-way film so they can't see inside...even though it's the laundry room which doesn't see a lot of activity.
Sad news about the cowbird chick... His fledgeling flight seems to have landed him in a water garden pot. He doesn't really look like he was ready to fly, still quills and fluff... could the wrens have gotten wise to him and kicked him out? I didn't take a photo, just buried his drowned little body. After all my kvetching, I'm sad he came to such an end.
Maybe they abandoned him and he got hungry. Or maybe a predator grabbed it, the wrens tried to scare it off, and it dropped it in the pot.
Edited to add another thought. When 2 tiny wrens are forced to find enough food for a cowbird, they might not have the luxury of leaving a parent to guard the nest while the other forages. Maybe the high predation rate is why cowbirds lay up to 3 dozen eggs per summer.
After my new stone path was completed, I noticed a squashed, dead nestling nearby and was saddened by the thought that maybe I or the workers had stepped on a live bird. Then I realized that it wasn't ready to fly, and decided that some sort of predator must have dropped it there and that it probably was already dead when it got squashed.
This message was edited Jun 14, 2015 5:46 PM
My little flying squirrel is becoming a regular nightly visitor to my peanut feeder, so I make sure there are some nuts in there for it. It's so cute!
Awwww! Love those furry little guys.
No new eggs or activity in the wren nest in the hanging basket... but Mama Robin is laying a THIRD clutch in the nest on the front porch. Space is pretty tight, so they've only been raising 3 chicks in a clutch... that may explain 3 clutches in 1 season.
Saw something really odd just now. Thought it was a male cardinal--
BUT--it was solid red, no dark markings on the head and a fairly long tail.
Also--I would say--it was more a neon red--not the regular red of cardinals.
I got just a glimpse--as it hopped out from under my Holly bushes and flew off.
?????? Gita
escaped parrot?
NO! regular bird--just an odd, solid color...all over-- the same red.
Scarlet tanager?
No, terri---from my window, I saw him hop out from under the shrubs,
pause for a second and then fly off. In that second--all i saw was a solid red bird
with a fairly long tail..at least compared to a cardinal.
The Tanager I Googled had a lot of black pattern on it--this bird had none.
It could have been a mutated male cardinal??? The red color was like on the tanager--
with a touch of orange to the red...
Hope I see it again....maybe I am all goofy! ???????
Maybe a Summer Tanager: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Summer_Tanager/id
Muddy! I think that is IT!!! Sure looks like it--long tail and all.
Odd that a bird that I have never seen would appear in my garden.
Have any of you seen it in this area? I have to read up on it.
I read the description in the above link and it said it lives in a
forest habitat.
Well.....I live in a development, but there are woods around here as well
as streams and a lot of drainage ponds. This IS a marshy area.
Here's another odd thing....
Today, as i was outside gardening, I decided to look under the holly bushes
to see what was there that the red bird, and others, were examining--
going under there and then coming out and flying away.
There is NO seed or bugs under there. just my black trash-bags
filled with decaying shredded leaves.
There was a dead, decaying starling (I think) under there. It was already dried up
and the maggots were going at it. I picked the carcass up with my shovel
and threw it in my trash can.
Can birds smell another dead bird? Just curious.....g.
Probably after the maggots....yummmm!
YEAH! I thought of that too.....
I saw my first hummingbird of the day today!
Where else but on the monarda! :D
Mimosa is starting to bloom... that's where ours will be! I've heard them a couple of times when head-down pulling weeds, but I haven't seen them yet. I have a couple of feeders out, not sure if they care. Other birds are perching on them to drink water out of the "ant moat" and getting away with it. (If a hummer has staked out a feeder, he usually doesn't let others near, even non-hummers, from what I've seen.)
VERY cool about your summer tanager, Gita!
Yes--I think it was very cool too...even if it just lasted 10 seconds...
Perhaps it was just stopping by while on his/her way to some river bank.
I Googled it--and then clicked on "Images"--and, as you all know, there were
about a million pictures to look at.
I picked out one that looked good. MAN! These birds have a serious sized beak!
Also saved one of the Chick. You'll get a chuckle from the "chic-pic"....
It would be a good one as an intro picture to a new Bird-Thread,
g.
I was just sitting on my porch swing when a bright yellow Gold Finch
tried to alight on my Thistle feeder--but flew off when it saw me.
NO ONE is eating any Thistle seed right now. The full feeder is
just hanging around....
I guess it will stay there until someone wants to feed from it.
I am not going to empty it . I am not feeding birds seed any more.
They are on their own...
This morning--I decided to throw out a couple hand-fulls of dried corn--
the kind that comes on the cobs. I sprinkled it in about 5 different places.
This little squirrel spent a long, long time burying most of them.
My beds and lawn have a zillion freshly dug little holes...
Wonder if I will get some Corn plants?????
I bet you will get corn plants!
I don't know what it is with the thistle, but nothing eats it in my yard either. When I do see Goldfinches, they're at other feeders. They seem to hold out for the "real thing" - Coneflower and Black-eyed Susan seeds.
Same here- I found thistle seed and put it in my yellow and black feeder but no visitors. I know they'll be here every day once sunflowers start. Boy do I have a lot of volunteers from last years sunflowers though.
Same here with the thistle feeder. Think I'll spread that leftover seed in the feeder so it doesn't cake together. With all the rain we've had I think it will get funky.
I don't put out thistle in summer... it goes rancid quickly in the heat. If you have any left that still smells sweet (I've been known to chew a few seeds to check), put it in the freezer for fall.. even with A/C it doesn't keep well enough.
Muddy, a blue jay came to the deck yesterday and bolted a big meal from the squirrel feeder (sunflower, peanut hearts... he picked out the cracked corn). I hope he returns! I'd love to have them visit regularly as you do.
I bet 'ya he'll be back now that he knows that yummy things are there...and he'll bring his relatives too!
There are a few blue jay "toddlers" around; they're still begging Mom or Dad to feed them, but they look plenty big enough to help themselves.
I've also seen one Robin fledgling. I happened to be outside when the neighbor's cat was stalking it....grrrrrr!
I checked the bluebird nest yesterday and there are still only 4 little blue eggs. They must be close to hatching, so I don't think I risk upsetting the parents by checking again.
I saw my first hummingbird of the year today! It was enjoying the Monarda in my front yard. I stood still and it checked me out a few times before going back to sipping, but it left when I decided to leave so that I wouldn't bother it.
I started a new thread because I wanted to change the subject ; - )
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1398862/