Barn Swallows

Dave took some great pics of some barn swallows just outside the house the other day. I think these are some of our best ones to date.

Further evidence

of Grosbeaks nesting nearby. This male rose-breasted grosbeak was feeding this cowbird. The cowbird was sitting next to the RBGB, beating it's wings furiously, demanding food and the male obliged. Cowbirds are native birds, but are parasites. The females lay their eggs in other birds' nests and leave them to raise their young. The problem with this is that often the young cowbirds are more aggressive than the other young and outcompete them for food and other resources. This male was busy feeding this bird and we didn't see it feeding any other of it's offspring at the time. Since then we have seen the male feeding with two juvenile RBGBs. We have not see the cowbird/RBGB a second time.

Families

Yesterday, we saw numerous family groups in the yard.

There were a total of four white-breasted nuthatches. This is the most we've ever seen at one time. They were sticking close together and were near the orange feeder. Other than seeing them all together, we saw one (likely a parent) visiting the suet feeder, taking chunks of suet and flying off, likely to share it with the babies. We didn't see this last year at all, so it's exciting to see a family of nuthatches in our yard.


We also saw a total of four rose-breasted grosbeaks. We think some must be juveniles, but since they look like the females, we're not sure of the baby head count. There was one male and three females/juveniles together on the tree. I wasn't fast enough with the camera, so I missed the group shot. I did get some pics of two of the females/juveniles together and the male at the feeder as well. The rbgb were not around this late last year and since they are so pretty, it's wonderful to have them stick around this late into the summer. Success!!!


We also saw an adult grackle with two babies. The parent (it's not possible to determine male/female in the adults on just looking at them) was feeding the babies suet and seemed to be giving them water, but I'm not sure if that's what was happening or if they were just at the water and the parent was giving suet it had kept in it's mouth.



A juvenile baltimore oriole was also at the tray feeder at the orange. I don't think we saw orioles this late last year and we think they must have nested nearby this year.

The flycatchers decided not to use the nesting box (yet), but we keep seeing them around, on the fence or in the trees. It's nice to be able to see a new bird hanging around.

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.