Springtime and baby birds

[John K Jordan]

The wild birds are nesting like crazy now.

While getting water today at the barn I turned around I saw a bird's nest with baby birds on a shelf behind me. While I was looking one of the parents came flying in to bring food to the babies, then saw me and turned around and flew away very fast! I saw them feeding the babies later. This picture is with my cell phone with the flash since it was dark - not a good picture but you can see some of the little birds!

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These are Carolina Wrens. Carolina wrens like to build nests in strange places!


A long time ago I took these pictures of Carolina Wrens building a nest in a motorcycle helmet on top of a cabinet in our carport.
I put a digital SLR camera on a tripod and aimed it at some places where the birds were stopping for a moment. Manual focus. I'm at the window in the house watching and triggering the camera with a remote control - I waited until a bird was in the right place and tried to catch some good shots. It was tricky!

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I thought this was a nice pose for a portrait.

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This photo with the bird about to take off towards the nest is one of my favorites. :) It shows the legs ready to jump and the instant the wings were extended for the downstroke to lift the bird into the air. It happens so fast it was just good luck and lots of tries to get the picture.

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JKJ

[Mark Hennebury]

Cute little birds. I saw the fox with three or four young ones out at the back of our old barn today enjoying the sunshine. Spring is in the air.

[Mel Fulks]

My favorite is the two little birds combining their faces to make one scary ,twice as big face in the nest. Proof of baby
bird teamwork !

[Jim Becker]

Our Carolina Wrens love using the birdhouse I have in my herb garden. They fight off any other bird species that tries to set up shop in that particular birdhouse. :)

[Bruce Volden]

I wish I had some cute little birds to watch. All I have been seeing lately are them *amn grackles.
Screeching noisy nest building/destroying things, I hate 'em--but they do make excellent target practice.
Now only if the cats would eat them.

Bruce

[Patrick Walsh]

Great thread!

I was never much into birds and kinda used to get a good chuckle out of birders. Probably much as they did or do of me so fair is fair. I had a good friend into birds and he was unique for sure.

Of course I could and have always appreciated the majestic beauty of say a raptor while up in the mountains or the such but you a average garden variety seasonal birds not so much.

Then I build myself a mini arboretum of rare specamin trees shorty after incurring a chronic injury thAt made it impossible for me to get out in nature on the regular.

Where am I going with this “yeah I know” well the result is my tiny 5600 sq ft lot 20 minutes outside Boston have into a annual pit stop for various migrating birds. I now look forward to it every year. The birds have taken over my property returning annually to build nests most of them in the same spot every year. Most of them very common but some very beautiful every year I get this little tiny brown non descriptive birds I have yet to figure out what they are as they have no tell tail markings. We have yellow belly finches, cardinals, blue birds, robins, oh man my pit bull is petrified of the robins as they dive bomb him everytime he goes out to go to the bathroom. And a few others that all show up annually. It’s rally has become a secondary treasure and Rollie not to the garden.

I can see as I age I’ll probably be one of those weird eccentric bird people lol..

I’ll add, the more weird unique and or out of the norm the better imop. If I can use a broad brush again as I seem to do. Normal is the only bad lol...

[michael langman]

Nice John. This is my wife and I best time of year.

Awaiting the return of our little friends.

We have a carolina wren that visits at our window with the Rose of Sharone tree right outside.

Just set out a hummingbird feeder, and have an eye out for our catbird.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Finished up my Bluebird trail Saturday (five boxes.) Older boxes didn't have nests yet. In bush, close to generator shed, mama Cardinal is sitting upon four eggs. Ms Wren and her little ones have been very noisy lately. As large as the little ones are, I think they are last years brood. She thinks she owns the place, with us as care takers. Every night, we bring in dog's food to keep her and her little ones out of it. They scatter it looking for pieces small enough to eat. Over at son's yesterday, got dive bombed by a Humming bird

[Larry Frank]

Found a Mallard nest with more than 8 big eggs in it.

It has been exciting watching a pair of Cooper's Hawks. They also have been "flirting" together. The down side is that there are a lot fewer birds at the feeders.

It is still a few weeks before the Hummingbirds show up. I watch this migration and Monarch migration progress at the Journey North website.

[John K Jordan]

Found a Mallard nest with more than 8 big eggs in it.

It has been exciting watching a pair of Cooper's Hawks. They also have been "flirting" together. The down side is that there are a lot fewer birds at the feeders.

It is still a few weeks before the Hummingbirds show up. I watch this migration and Monarch migration progress at the Journey North website.

Our guineas lay eggs in hidden nests in the brush or woods. The problem is the crows eventually find them. The shells are too hard for them to break open so they have learned to carry them high in the air and drop and break them on our graveled driveway, then swoop down to eat the contents. So combat this, when we find a nest I start robbing some every day, leaving enough to make the guineas keep laying. I put the eggs in a special egg cooler until I accumulate enough to incubate a batch.

I have over 100 guinea eggs that based on candling are growing little ones due to hatch in a few weeks. I have over 50 chicken eggs I moved from the incubator to the hatcher yesterday, due to hatch in a few days. We'll see!

Our humming birds have emptied three feeders in a week!

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

Our humming birds have emptied three feeders in a week!

JKJ[/QUOTE]
A great plant to atract humming birds is jewel weed,AKA "touch me not".

[John K Jordan]

A great plant to atract humming birds is jewel weed,AKA "touch me not".

Yikes, we don't have any trouble attracting them! The biggest trouble with hummingbirds is one dominate bird spends all his time chasing the others away from the feeder. I solved this by putting out three feeders, two widely spaced on the side of the house where we can more easily watch out the window, and one completely around on the other side of the house. This lets the less aggressive humming birds get some too!

JKJ

[Patrick Walsh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2u7ogAgtQ