"jminer" (jminer)
06/08/2020 at 18:20 • Filed to: None
4
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"jminer" (jminer)
06/08/2020 at 18:20 • Filed to: None | 4
| 16 |
Mrs Miner and I are some of the strange folks that love feeding and watching birds. We’re not quite birders but do very much enjoy attracting unusual birds to our yard.
We are lucky to live out in a heavily wooded area that has a sizable bird population. The woodpeckers are particularly enjoyable and regularly see both Pi leated and Flick er species.
We also have several nesting boxes on the property and focus mostly on Eastern Bluebirds - they’re beautiful and my wife and I both love them. We had one clutch of eggs laid in March but a racoon got ahold of them...
I apologize for the mehness of the pictures, we use a fiber scope that attaches to my phone and the picture quality isn’t great but allows us to check on the birds and capture their progress.
Just over 3 weeks ago we spotted a new batch of bluebird eggs in one box
As a bonus we also had nuthatch eggs in another box
The nuthatches laid an impressive and terrifying 8 eggs in total!
On Friday the bluebirds hatched!
This pic is from yesterday though as they finally start to look like birds instead of lifeless hunks of pink.
Saturday the nuthatches hatched!
They still very much look like lifeless hunks of bird. That is a lot of baby bird in one box - I do no see any way they’ll all survive. Nature is harsh...
Once the birds hatch we hang out a few extra suet cakes and seed feeders to make the
parents not have to spend as much of their time hunting for food to give them as much chance as they can. Over the years about 3/4 of the eggs laid have hatched and birds fledged with s
nakes and r
acoons accounting for those that didn’t.
Shamoononon drives like a farmer
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 18:45 |
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So cool!! All I really have near my place are owls and mocking birds :(
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jminer
> Shamoononon drives like a farmer
06/08/2020 at 18:50 |
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Thanks! Owls are awesome, my dog doesn’t love them though. When the windows are open in spring and fall she barks when they hoot.
This actually has been cool and awesome to do over the years.
facw
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 18:51 |
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My parents’ have been sending updates on two nests at their house. This two pack of robins:
Plus another nest with two baby wrens up under the porch at the top of one of those pillars. They were a bit worried about wrens as a bird had previously built in that spot and the nest had fallen, but as of Saturday one of the chicks was looking like it was about to fly, and as of Sunday the nest looked empty and the parents weren’ t hanging around anymore, so it seems like they made it,
The robin chicks are apparently still growing, but at least look like birds now, instead of those deformed featherless protobirds.
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jminer
> facw
06/08/2020 at 18:56 |
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Yeah in the first few days baby birds looks horrifying!
One year I was lucky enough to be home and watching as a batch of bluebirds fledged and watched them bounce around the front yard learning to fly - it was amazing.
ClassicDatsunDebate
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 18:59 |
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Cool!
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jminer
> ClassicDatsunDebate
06/08/2020 at 19:09 |
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Thanks!
TheRealBicycleBuck
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 19:09 |
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Neat!
We have some bluebirds that have been nesting somewhere on the west side of the house. Every year at least one of the juveniles notices his reflection in the bathroom window and sets about defending his territory.
We also have mourning doves that roost on top of one of the columns on the front porch, at least one pair of cardinals and a blue jay that frequent the back yard. There’s also some geese at the neighborhood pond. Every morning they fly around the neighborhood calling to each other as they build their strength to migrate. My wife said there were some Mallards in the area, but I didn’t believe her until they appeared in our front yard.
We have at least one family of owls in the area. I haven’t seen one in years, but I hear them every night. We always go outside with the small dog so he doesn’t end up feeding them.
We don’t feed any of the birds, but we see lots of them anyway. I guess being along the migratory path helps a lot. I see many that I’ve never bothered to identify.
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jminer
> TheRealBicycleBuck
06/08/2020 at 19:17 |
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Thanks! Y ou’re in a major bird corridor down there so I bet you see a ton . We like watching the birds at the feeders, it amuses us. We see a fair variety here as well not far from the Mississippi and even get bald eagles in the winter. A couple years ago we had a juvenile eagle stay all year which was neat!
wafflesnfalafel
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 19:23 |
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super cool -
My wife has a seed feeder for “her” birds - she gets juncos, chicadees, a few sparrow, etc all vying for a spot on the feeder. It was kinda of funny right when the pandemic hit - I swear she was more concerned that we had enough seed for her birds than food for the human household members. :)
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jminer
> wafflesnfalafel
06/08/2020 at 19:27 |
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Thanks! We have had to ration the bird seed as we used to go through 3-4 suet cakes a day and a 40# bag of sunflower seeds every week. The feeders we put out got cut in half as I didn’t want to go to the farm store every other week.
This was a serious conversation we had to have - my wife gets very emotionally invested in the birds.
Nom De Plume
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 19:43 |
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Empty nester, eh.
/pun
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jminer
> Nom De Plume
06/08/2020 at 20:30 |
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LMAO! We're actually both 35 and no kids but that's a fantastic pun!
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Nom De Plume
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 20:47 |
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Figured it would go over well.
Beefchips
> jminer
06/08/2020 at 22:44 |
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B aby birds look like tiny aliens. My MIL has parrots and back when she was still letting them lay I would help hand feed the babies. I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid of accidentally damaging something. So fragile!
Wh ats your fav bird do you think? I’d go for swainso n’ s thrush for the song alone.
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jminer
> Beefchips
06/08/2020 at 22:59 |
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They definitely look insane when just hatched.
It’s tough to pick a favorite, I’d say favorite large bird is a Pileated Woodpecker - their size is impressive and it’s awesome to see them scoot up and down trees and posts while pecking hard enough to sound like it’s someone with a hammer .
Small bird is probably the Eastern Bluebird, they’re beautiful and social and when nesting they get hilariously protective. They’ll run Blue Jays off the feeders if they stay too long or get too close to their box.
Predator is the Peregrine Falcon - that one’s pretty popular but I see them fairly regularly where I work downtown (a few buildings put out nest boxes for them).
Favorite bird interaction is from a long time ago when I was paddling a canoe with a friend on the Mississippi north of St Louis at the end of December. The eagles were everywhere and didn’t seem to mind us being around at all. They were beautiful and had a wonderful cry as they swooped down catching fish. There were probably a hundred we saw every mile - it was amazing.
oldmxer
> jminer
06/10/2020 at 03:14 |
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nice work! we have some nesting boxes i need to try this next spring, we have some Robins that come back every year to the same nest, we also have several mud nests that produce Swifts every year