Titles are the hardest part

Baby bird mania is happening in the yard and the trees right now. Over the weekend, we saw many new birds making their way to the feeders, under close supervision of a parent.

I'm going to break up the weekend sightings into a few posts since there were so many of them.

We saw a baby cardinal with a female cardinal at the seed feeders. Last year we didn't see a baby cardinal until August, so perhaps they have more than one cycle in the summer like the robins. The baby cardinals are quite pale. We only saw one on this particular day. I remember that last year we saw three babies together. The first two pics are the baby cardinal on it's own and the third shows him/her with some cowbirds that were feeding in the same area.




and mother cardinal was nearby keeping an eye out.



We also saw a baby male Downey Woodpecker being fed by a female Downey- very cute! The baby woodpeckers make a very loud "peep! peep!", so we usually hear them before we see them.





Time to stretch these things out!

Flying Fledglings!

The baby tree swallows have started to explore life outside the box. About three or four of the seven have been flying out and about. The parents are still going to the box to feed a few of them who haven't been brave enough to go out on their own yet.






This activity started yesterday morning and has been continuing this morning. The young seem to be hanging around, not flying too far off on their own.




It must be pretty exciting to come out of the dark nesting box and see the bright blue sky, stretched out with all possibilities in it's endlessness.

B's pics

Brittney was out here yesterday and she took some fantastic pictures of the birds in our yard. These are some of her work.

Father's Day weekend

Another look at the robin's nest shows there are now four eggs.


Dave checked in on the tree swallows (and was dive bombed by the parents) and it looks like all seven eggs hatched.

The house wren seems to have a nest completed (I think??). We're not sure if there are eggs stashed away down there or not.


We've also seen what we think are baby downy and hairy woodpeckers around. Still no sign of the red-bellied woodpecker at all. Here's a hairy enjoying some orange on Sunday:


Here is one of the many, many baby starlings around. These guys guard and fight over the suet. They are so noisy!! The only birds that don't back down from them are the mature hairy woodpeckers (they stretch out their wings and motion their beaks at the starlings to chase them away) and the grackles, who are bigger than the starlings and don't seem bothered by them at all.


Here's a downy getting a turn at the suet for a change:




We've also seen two male rose-breasted grosbeaks and a female on and off the last week or so. Not sure if they are babies or just still hanging around. We didn't see any for awhile, but we've seen just these few the last while.

Here's a Red Breasted Grosbeak in flight, taking some suet:
The gold finches continue to enjoy the niger seed. Our sack needs repairing in a few spots.



Here's a female cowbird we've been seeing for the last few weeks. Her head is strangely shaped. We haven't noticed a change in it, so I don't think it's just a loss of feathers. Sort of a helmet head and it gives her a mane.



And while weeding, Dave found a very large toad. We took a quick pic and then put it back. Nice work on keeping down the bugs, Mr Toad!

New life

Lots of new life out in the yards, the trees and at the feeders these days.

There are at least 6 baby tree swallows in the nesting box. It's getting louder nad louder in there, so they might be heading into the world on their own soon. Their calls remind me of dial-up computer/fax machine noises- all sorts of peeping/beeping.



Here's papa bringing in a delicious buggy dinner.



The flycatcher has still be around, but we haven't seen them at the nesting box any further.

The house wrens are still busy at their nesting box. The male is singing most of the day and there is lots of movement. Dave has to check it out still to see what's happening inside.

The robin is sitting on a nest of three eggs (at last count). Very exciting that they are giving it a second round so soon.



I haven't seen much of the female hummingbird lately, so I hope that means she's busy on a nest. The male has been at the feeder and at the flowers of the scarlet runner beans that were planted especially for them.

Other babies we've seen around: a bluejay (he/she only getting the blue feathers now and mostly looking grey/black all over), house finches (3 with a parent), cardinals, grackle and of course many starlings.

Last night there was a flurry of activity in the front yard. At least four barn swallows were swooping around, right by the front windows. This is the closest we've seen them fly by. We think they must be newly set out from the nest. They were sticking close together and checking things out - particularly flying in close to Dave while he was barbequing out back. The pics are quite blurry since they are always moving, and moving so quickly. There were probably 20 empty frames for every one we managed to get.