A Crow Grabbing A Snack!

I don't know what he's got in his mouth (not sure I want to) but he stole it from another crow on one roof, carried it to another roof (pics above) and ate it in peace. It was quite comical watching him try to keep it from rolling off the roof while pecking away at it. I think a lot of people hate crows (along with pigeons) but I find them interesting and quite beautiful! I really don't know if this is a Raven or not but I think because of his size, maybe it was.

A Visitor To My Backyard!

This hawk landed in the tree and I just happened to have my camera on hand. He was making all kinds of noise and was very close to the eggs in the satellite dish. He finally flew away hopefully before spotting them. The eggs are due to hatch any day now!

What Bird Is This?

I'm trying to identify this bird. If anyone knows, please leave me a comment and let me know :)

New Eggs In An Old Nest!

Remember this nest?? Well, it has 4 new eggs in it! I wasn't sure if house finches re-use old nests but I guess they do. Of course I don't know if it's the same mom or a different one that happened upon a good nest but it's exciting to have them around. In the following picture, I reached a mirror up there to see how many eggs!

Empty Nest, Fledglings & Unfortunate Incident...

After the babies left the satellite dish(see previous post), I checked the pine tree in the front yard to see if any of those babies have left the nest and it looked like 2 had left and the two in the photo above were still there. I checked on them again yesterday morning and noticed one was perched on the edge of the nest so I knew it was going to leave soon, too. I just happened to look out my window and see the first one fly out and land in my front yard.
One of my neighbors lets her cat roam the neighborhood so I didn't want to take my eyes off this little guy until he was in a safe spot.

He stayed her for about an hour...

and then he fell asleep! Finally he flew up but landed in the same spot and stayed there for quite some time again. Then he flew again and made it to the roof!

I was thrilled he was now a bit safer from the cat but I feared a hawk would snatch him up as he was right out in the open. Then it flew to a safe spot in my backyard tree! Yay, I was thrilled. I finally got to witness a successful journey from egg to flight!

Warning! Sad story ahead :(

I peaked in the nest and noticed the little guy left was quite a bit smaller than his sibling and didn't quite look ready to leave the nest so I thought he might stay in there a little longer. Well, he had other ideas! Not even an hour later, I checked on him and this is what I saw...

He stayed her for a looooong time trying to work up the nerve to leave...

He finally did it and hopped into a shady spot on the side of the house. Once again, being a prime target for the cat...

The little guy was trying so hard to fly up and over my fence to get into the backyard and so I opened the gate for him and coaxed him through it.

He quickly found another hiding spot and stayed there awhile.

As an aside, it may not look like it but during this whole ordeal I tried to give this little guy his space so mom and dad could watch over him, feed him and know where he was. I was just keeping an eye out for the cat!

After he left this spot, his mom came down and tried to show him how to fly in this short video.

After flight school with mom, he hopped himself to a nice shady, hidden spot between a fence and our shed. Once there, he slept for a few hours. As it started getting darker, he nestled down in the rocks but kept chirping. The rest of his family had all bedded down for the evening somewhere else and I felt so bad leaving this guy all alone for the night. I just had a feeling he wasn't going to make it with that cat prowling around...and fox and racoons, etc. When the sun went down, he was sleeping quietly so we didn't interfere.

Morning came and to my relief he was still there! Yay! He was still staying in the same area behind the shed but was moving around a bit and chirping away. I didn't take any pictures of him this morning but I took this little video of him looking up at his dad on the fence...



I checked on him very frequently as I wanted to keep track of where he might go. I went inside for about 10 minutes and when I came back out I saw my neighbor's black cat dart from behind the shed, scurry under the bushes and hop the fence. The baby bird has not bee seen since :(

Now a bit of a vent from me: I know the period of time after a bird leaves the nest and before it learns to fly is a very vulnerable time because of the multitude of predators but what angers me is the cat that killed this baby bird is someones pet and doesn't need to hunt for food to survive, it does it purely for the sport of it (yes, I know, that's what cats do yada-yada, blah, blah). It came into MY yard as it does on a regular basis. I choose not to own a cat yet I have to deal with someone else's cat coming into my yard using my sandbox and grass as a litterbox! It irks me quite a bit to say the least. If you choose to own a cat, keep it indoors...your cat-less neighbors will thank you for it! There, done venting!

Empty Nest!

The babies under the satellite dish have left the nest!
I took this photo on the the 17th...



I took this photo on the 18th...

and this photo was taken on the 19th!

I didn't actually see them leave the nest but I hope they made it to safety and are enjoying life as a bird! They left quite a messy nest under my dish but it was worth it! It really was a choice spot for a nest!

The nestlings in the pine tree...

I couldn't resist getting a photo of these cuties. I don't usually check on them now that they're getting bigger because I don't want to scare them. I saw some babies hopping around in my yard and I thought they might have been the ones in my pine tree so I just had to know by carefully taking a look. There, staring back at me were 4 nestlings still snuggled together not quite ready to leave the nest just yet. Of course I had to take a quick video too, and as you can see they didn't even care that I was there. The mother and father were squawking at me a bit, so I quickly left and gave them some space. Enjoy!

Another update on the baby birds!

I have to be careful when I go near the nest as they are aware of me now. If I get too close they duck down in the nest and hide but this one kept it's head poked up long enough for me to take a picture. They are really getting big quick! Enjoy!

Updated pic of the baby finches!

They are getting bigger and starting to look a little more like birds now! I expect they will leave the nest sometime this week.

Another squirrel deflector...

The squirrel deflector under the bird feeder has been working like a charm but they still like to hang out under it catching all the droped seeds. It doesn't bother me and it's fun to watch Kayla stalk them! Most of the time she just intimidates them by staring them down but every once in awhile she actually darts toward them and gives them a scare. In her younger days she would've been able to catch them but her arthritis has slowed her down :)

Baby birds! Updated pics and videos!

I was sure the nest under my satellite dish was abandoned the other day. I just stopped seeing the mom at the nest and it was really chilly out. I took a mirror and looked in the nest and didn't see any movement so I thought the babies had died. Well, I kept checking and I finally saw both the mom and dad show up just to feed the babies. I watched and realized that there just isn't enough room for mom on the nest now so she and dad just perch themselves on a nearby tree and stand guard from there. So, I'm happy to report the babies (there were 5 eggs) are well and good. Enjoy the pics and videos!






Below is a video of the hungry birds. Dad is on top of the satellite dish watching as mom attempts to feed them. You can't see her but if you look closely to the left, you can see the tip of her tail sticking out.




This next video is the nest in my juniper bush...the sleeping birds didn't even know I was there!

The baby finches have hatched!

Here's a photo of the nest in my juniper bush and below is a little video...

Zoo Peacock!

I'm always amazed at how beutiful the peacock's tail is. I don't get to see it open very often!

Keeping the pesky squirrels out of my bird feeder!

I've never noticed too many squirrels in my yard but when I put up the bird feeder, they showed up. On the first day, a squirrel just sat on the fence and starred at it most of the day then left and I didn't see him for a few days. I figured he gave up. I was wrong because when he came back he went right over to the feeder and climbed right up the pole and sat on my birdfeeder and helped himself. I wish I would've had my camera handy for that shot! Off I went to search the net for a solution. When I was about to head off to the local garden shop to buy one, my husband, being the craftsman that he is informed me he had all the supplies he needed to whip up a quick baffler himself. This is how he did it...

Cut some sheet metal...

Bent the edges in so they wouldn't be sharp...

Crimped the edges together to form a cone...

Formed a piece of wood to fit snuggly under the cone, around the pole...


Some screws to make it adjustable...

The finshed baffler looks like this...

So far it works like charm!

Grabbing some nesting material

I was sitting under my tree and a little house finch and her mate stopped by to grab some nesting material from the old robin's nest. I'd like to think it was the finch couple from my gutter making a new, hopefully better located nest :)

So sad, the nest is gone :(

Well, I was really hoping the rain would hold off until the nestlings fledged but no such luck. We had a fairly heavy rainstorm Saturday night while I wasn't home and I was worried how the nest would hold up. To my surprise, she was still sitting up there the next day. This picture was taken to show how her nest is damming up our downspout and all the water is spilling over the edge.
Unfortunately later in the afternoon we had extremely heavy thunderstorms move across the state. Again, I wasn't home but was very concerned about how the nest was holding up. When I got home late that evening, I shined a flashlight up there and there was no mama bird so I knew it wasn't a good sign. I didn't see her at all the next day, either. At one point I saw the male finch land on the gutter about a foot away and look around as if he were wondering what had happened (maybe he knew) and it was sad. That evening we got more heavy rain and since we were sure the nest had been abandoned, we had no choice but to clean the nest out of our gutter before damage was done to our roof (if it hadn't already). Sure enough, 2 nestlings and one egg had perished. It is so heartbreaking and I'm hoping mama has found a safer place to build her next nest. :(

Easing my concern for the nestlings

Although I can't see them, I think I can hear them but I know they're up there! The nestlings in my gutter have hatched! I see mama finch feeding something and dad finch feeds mom. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a little concerned that if a nestling falls out of the nest pre-maturely, it is a long fall to a concrete patio. To ease my concerns, I keep my umbrella underneath just in case. I figure it will at least break the fall halfway down. Now if I can just keep it from raining too hard and drowning them :)

Here's dad after he stopped by to feed mom...