Hungry fledgling chirping impatiently...
for dad to fill up on food.
Dad hops up to hungry fledgling...
...Chow time!
I watched this dedicated dad do this 3 times before the youngster was satisfied. I suspect mom was off somewhere doing the same. What a job!
I'm a little bummed that there are no nests in my yard so far this spring :( For those that haven't read my archives, last spring I had 4 different nesting sites in my yard (2 unsuccessful and 2 successful). It was all very exciting and stressful watching and worrying about all the little eggs, nestling and fledglings but so fun! I signed up for NESTWATCH and so far have nothing to watch. I was hoping the two nests used last year that produced two successful broods each, would be used again this year but nope! I saw a female House Finch rustling around in the 'satellite dish' nest early this spring but she must have decided it's unusable this season. It is really in poor shape so I will remove it in hopes that they will build a new one from scratch in this location someday. Same goes for the 'juniper' nest. Such a great location but the little nest is all filled with pine needles and is of no interest this season. However, even though there are no nests in my yard, there must be some nearby as I had this youngster, fresh from the nest flutter around in my yard for a bit last week! No parents were around that I could see but he sat for the longest time on this branch before hopping over the fence into the yard behind mine.
I had this visitor show up briefly on my fence. Once again, I lucked out that he stayed there long enough for me to grab my camera...then he was gone. This is one of my favorite birds to listen to although not my favorite to look at, lol!
My new Squirrel Buster Plus just arrived from Amazon and I have to say I'm VERY impressed! Sure it was a bit pricey but the quality is outstanding! It holds a ton of seed (something like 3 qts) and it comes apart easily with all parts being dishwasher safe! As for the squirrels...they can jump right to the perches from the ground but the ports close right down and the squirrels get nothing and give up. I haven't seen them try anymore 4 days after hanging it. The squirrels are going to have to be happy with the dropped seeds and the apple cores I throw out in the yard. They were getting a little too fat, anyway ;)
Shortly after hanging it, one of my House Finch regulars went right to it and tried it out.
Here's a picture of my current set-up. The finches really like the Finch Sock so I may just look into purchasing the Squirrel Buster Finch Feeder from this same company (Brome) because the quality is so impressive.
I actually ventured out of my backyard for a change and took my camera (and heavy lens) to a nearby lake. There is a Bald Eagle's nest in a protective area of this lake that has been there for quite a few years. I doubt I will be able to get any photos, and didn't even try on this day, as you cannot get very close during this critical nesting time. There are two nestlings that hatched in March I believe. I really didn't spend a lot of time at the lake on the day I took these photos (April 19th) but I did get two shots of a Western Meadowlark when I first arrived and as I was leaving I got a few great shots of this Red-Tailed Hawk with his lunch!
This Blue-Jay landed on my fence near my feeder for a brief moment then off he went. I actually heard him from inside my house and he was loud enough I figured he had to be in my yard. I grabbed my camera and was able to get two shots. As I moved to get a better view without the branches, he was gone. I guess he didn't like what I had to offer...no peanuts!
As long as there have been bird feeders, there have been issues with squirrels. I thought I had it good because right after I put up my feeder, I made this post about my Squirrel baffle. That was almost a year ago. It worked like a charm all through the winter months with the two squirrels being content with the dropped seed and the apple cores(I gave them almost daily). Well, my luck ran out. Just about a month ago, I noticed a squirrel on my feeder. I have a suspicion that this is a new squirrel because about the time I saw him on the feeder, I started noticing 3 instead of 2 squirrels in my yard. Regardless of that, there is now a squirrel on my feeder about 85% of the time emptying it at a rapid pace. I finally reached my limit when I saw him carry off almost a whole suet cake!!!
Well, I never did see any Goldfinches but I did see this...
He loved the stuff!
He's actually using the baffle to his advantage!!! Argh!
As I was working on this cross-stitching project I thought it might be fun to share my progress on this blog, after all it IS bird-related! This is only the third cross-stitching project I've ever worked on. The first one was one in a series of 12 projects featuring a different quilt for each month of the year. I only did one of them, lol! That was over 7 years ago before I had kids. A couple of years ago, I started another project but never finished it. Now, as for this one, the boys wanted to buy me a craft project for my birthday last month so we headed to the craft store an I chose this project that features birds in all 4 seasons. This is what it will look like when I'm done! So far I've been working on it since April 20th and still going strong when I have a few minutes to myself. I'm hoping that by posting it here, I will remain faithful to my goal of finishing it completely and getting it framed!!!!
On May 1st, a local bird store near me was hosting a day of events in celebration of International Migratory Bird Day! In addition to local artisan's, live music, food and such, HawkQuest was there with some bird's of prey to see up close! First was this beautiful Great Horned Owl. It had been hit by a car and is unable to survive in the wild due to a defective wing. Beautiful, huh? I know for a fact there is a nest near my house with some newly hatched owlettes and one of these evening I will get around to photographing them!
There were a few other hawks in the room with this Bald Eagle but the photographs were not great because I didn't want to use my flash. I accidentally had it on for this one photo and it's the only one that turned out. This adorable eagle has been with HawkQuest for 11 years ever since it fell out of the nest and was rescued, barely surviving.
Finally, there was a charity Dove Race! A portion of the proceeds went to the Jason Dahl Foundation. We sponsored 2 birds and when they opened the cages, the doves raced back to their lofts in a nearby suburb with the winning dove (or his sponsor that is) won a $200 pair of binoculars! These are the 100 doves waiting to be released...
Here's a little video of the release of the Doves! Unfortunately neither of the two doves we sponsored made it back home first and we didn't win :( At least our donation went to a good cause and it was fun to watch!
