A little history about my encounter with birdwatching or birding as it is also known...Up until this spring I spent my whole life (42 years) not really paying any attention to birds and never understood why anyone would want to birdwatch as a hobby or even have a bird as a pet...I'm a dog person all the way! One day in late April I was in my backyard and I noticed a nest in my tree. I thought this was kind of exciting because this is the first time this tree has ever had a nest and it's the only tree in my yard. I watched for awhile to see if the nest was being used. Sure enough, I photographed this American Robin putting the finishing touches on her work of art. Just to give you and example of how much I didn't know about birds a few weeks ago, I didn't even know this bird was a Robin!
I can't remember if this is the male or female Robin but I couldn't resist taking this photo complete with dirt on his/her beak from grabbing worms!
It didn't take long after finding this nest for me to become obsessed with the idea of watching this bird raise a family right in my yard. I envisioned all the great photo opportunities I would get as the nestlings beame fledglings and took their first flight. I immediatley got online and learned all there was to learn about American Robins. I could tell when she was laying her eggs and I knew when she was done because she rarely left the nest and when she did it was for a very short time. I became very curious to see how many eggs she had so I waited patiently for her to fly a safe distance away and I climbed on the shed roof and quickly took this photo on May 7, 2009 ...
It didn't take long after finding this nest for me to become obsessed with the idea of watching this bird raise a family right in my yard. I envisioned all the great photo opportunities I would get as the nestlings beame fledglings and took their first flight. I immediatley got online and learned all there was to learn about American Robins. I could tell when she was laying her eggs and I knew when she was done because she rarely left the nest and when she did it was for a very short time. I became very curious to see how many eggs she had so I waited patiently for her to fly a safe distance away and I climbed on the shed roof and quickly took this photo on May 7, 2009 ...
I watched this robin sit on these eggs for 3 more days and on Mother's day I didn't see the robin anymore. I was so worried something may have happened to her and I kept an eye on the nest most of the day and still no robin. Finally, my husband went out to investigate. Much to our disappointment, the eggs were gone and there were a few blue eggshells scattered on the ground beneath. I was heartbroken over this and immediately needed to know what happened so I could prevent it from happening again...was it a cat, raccoon, squirrel? I'll never know for sure but I have an idea about what may have happened. I still need to do more research but I feel strongly that maybe it has something to do with this male House Sparrow that's guarding a nest on my neighbor's roof...
I noticed as the robin was building her nest, when she would leave this sparrow would come and steal nesting material from her. I also noticed that after her eggs were gone he was at her nest quite a bit. I climebed up ther one day and noticed the nest is all filled in with twigs and grass as to make it unusable for another bird. Well, I guess it's one of those mysteries that will never be solved.As I was missing my robin, I quckly noticed a little bird fly up into my gutter. After watching this little bird for awhile, I realized she had a nest up there. At the time I first noticed her, I had no idea what kind of bird she was as I'm so new to this stuff. She was fast and I could never get a good look at her. This is the picture I took the day I noticed her...
At first I was thinking she was a House Wren but it seemed that her beak was too short. After spending some time watching her I noticed her mate and he was more identifiable due to his coloring. I did a search to find common birds for my area and came to the conclusion that thay are House Finches. Here a pic of the male and I fianally got a better pic of the girl when she landed on my neighbor's roof...
Here's another peak at her watching me. She's getting use to all the time we spend in the yard and doesn't seem quite as skittish as she first did.
Although it's way to high for me to see, I know she has eggs in there as she hardly ever leaves the nest and I saw the male come and feed her once.As I was sitting on my patio one morning, I saw that house sparrow from next door come and try to get in her nest twice but she (and I) scared him away. I'm a little concerned about her choice of a nest sight. As you can see it's in a gutter and right above it is a downspout. As if that's not bad enough, it's about a 15 feet drop to my concrete patio. I fear the thought of a heavy downpour and if they survive that, it will be a long drop if a nestling falls out or when the fledglings try to take their first flight. We shall see!I decided now that I enjoy watching the birds in my yard, I may as well get a bird feeder and a birdbath so they will stay around awhile. Here are some pics I took:
So that's about it for now. I'm hoping to have some exciting pictures in the coming weeks as the eggs hatch and hopefully there will be some successful fledglings taking flight! Thanks for stopping by!
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