A Second Look--May 21, 2014

It's been the drama of the birds this week or maybe I should say the confusion of the birds. Or let's try that one more time. It's been the week of my confusion about birds.

The sparrows nest is getting refinements now with pine needles and feathers lining the twig frame. No eggs yet. I'm still torn as to whether or not I should remove the nest and hope for a "better" bird. On the other hand, maybe the sparrows will be happy with their spot and leave other nests alone.

The 4/5 of the bluebird eggs have hatched. However, I'm a little worried because two times yesterday they were "sleeping" when I peeked at them. I think it was probably a protective measure so they wouldn't attract attention to themselves, but they were opening their mouths wide when I looked at them earlier in the week. To tell you the truth, they looked dead to me, but I saw a parent going into feed them later, so I guess that's a good sign.

And the most curious of all were the chickadee chicks. When I checked on them last Friday, I found another nest being built on top of them. It was the same nest material as the first one, so I guessed that it was still a chickadee doing the work. My first guess was that as the chicks were growing, the parents were building up the sides of the nest to protect the chicks. However upon further investigation, I found the nest had been built on top of the babies. I removed the new nest and one of them promptly opened its mouth to be fed. I was gone for a few days, but upon checking the box again yesterday, all of the babies were gone. I hope this means that they fledged. They were certainly not ready on Friday, but things happen fast in the baby bird world. However, whatever was working on the nest before, has been working on it again. I'm going to watch it a little longer to see if it's a sparrow. If it is, there is no doubt that I will clear the nest. However, I'm hoping that it's another chickadee.

If you haven't caught on by now from reading this blog, I like to watch birds, but don't know that much about them. I've learned a lot since we put up a feeder a couple of years ago, but still have a lot to learn. Just ask Aunt Martha, my bird expert. In the meantime, I enjoy watching, learning, and being confused by them. :)

When I'm not preoccupied with the birds, I'm finding new things blooming everyday. I'm hoping soon that most of the trees will be done, and my allergies will improve. We'll see. Presently, the oak are almost done blooming and the wild cherries are just starting.

Update: While doing a little research while writing this, it's possible that the sparrow's nest may be a wren's nest. Did I mention that I still have a lot to learn?

Here are some things I saw this week during a

Second Look.

 

Baby bluebirds. They are a day or two old on the left. Notice the one on the upper right is wrapped around an egg. The picture on the right shows what they looked like five days later.

  

On the left, you can see the new nest being built on top of the old one. On the right, you can see one of the baby chickadees poking its head out after I removed most of the second nest from on top of it.

The sparrow, maybe wren's nest.

More Siberian iris are opening up. However, this is the only bed so far with them blooming.

The first bearded iris has bloomed.

The bees are buzzing around the rhododendron which is in full bloom.

This is the second kind of wild cherry to bloom.

Although their prime blooming is over, all of these flowers are still providing color.