Beware - may be frightening!

Take care when viewing this first photo. You might not want to let little children see it unattended!

A couple weeks ago when Courtney was here, I was busy with something in the house, so she went out to visit the kitties by herself. She didn't stay out there very long (even though I'd told her I'd be out there "soon"). When she came back, she told me she'd seen a nest that had a face!

I asked her where this nest was, and she said it was way up high by the ceiling. I thought it sounded pretty intriguing, so we headed back out to the machine shed to take a look.

She sort of pointed it out to me, but she wouldn't look directly at it. It seemed to be too scary to look at!

I finally saw what she'd seen! A nest with a "face", indeed! Can you see it?

Pretty wicked-looking, huh?!

I assured her that it was nothing but an empty barn swallow nest, and that it only looked like a face. So she was able to then look at it a little closer herself. It also helped that a barn swallow landed in it for a few seconds. That was even more reassuring.

All in the eye of the beholder. :)

On another odd bird note, look what I found in the birdbath one day:

(Excuse the grossness of the bath. I've given up trying to keep it clean. I just scrub it with a steel brush occasionally when I change the water, and call it good. I did bleach it before I put it outside this spring, but that cleanliness didn't last long.)

It's a robin's eggshell. Have a closer look:

I wonder why. Weird.

I found another one!

Do you see what I see?

C'mon, look closer... way up high!

Closer yet....

Zoom your eyes in there!

Okay... here's my best shot.

Now do you know what it is? Remember those baltimore orioles I fed during the summer? Well, this is their nest! I happened to notice it when I was out on the deck washing windows a few days ago. They sure do have a way of hiding their nests, and they're usually up near the top of a tree.... as this one from last year was also.

Now if only I could get up there and get a closeup look at how it's made.

See what I see!

From our basement window, I kept noticing 'something' way up in a tree south of our driveway.

After several days, I finally remembered when I got upstairs (my memory's pretty short these days) to grab my binoculars and take a closer look.

I do believe it's a baltimore oriole nest! I'd been wanting to find one for a long time, knowing there had to be one around here somewhere, since the orioles are usually here all summer. Sure wish I could see it right up close and see how it's made, but I guess that won't happen unless for some reason the branch falls to the ground. But it's cool to know it's there!

(Click photos to enlarge.)

They grow up so fast!

Remember our little chipping sparrow baby that hatched on July 24th?

Here it is again with its sibling on July 28th......

July 30th......

And this morning......

Better say good-bye to them now, as they'll soon be off on their own!

More blue eggs

A few days ago, I checked the wren nest just to see if the egg was still in it, even though I knew it had been abandoned. The egg was gone, and it looked like something had partially dismantled the nest. Then I noticed I was being scolded, so I thought maybe the wrens had rebuilt their nest somewhere in the same bush. Of course, snoopy me had to start searching for it.

It didn't take me long to discover this new nest not far from the other one. It was a very neat little nest, similar to the original one (and I have to give the birds credit for practicality in using nest materials so readily available). However, looking into it, I was quite surprised to see that though these eggs were about the size of wren eggs, they were a different color!

Then I had to do some internet searching to figure out what kind of eggs they were. It turns out that they are chipping sparrow eggs. I have no idea when they will hatch but I'll keep peeking, and I will post a "birth announcement" and future photos.

Note: This post has been updated to correct identification of the nest and eggs. My apologies for any confusion!!

Mourning dove babies

Here they are at 10 days old. They've grown a lot since the last photo I took at just 3 days old. It won't be long and they'll be flying off.

Notice the kernel of corn on the edge of the nest in front of them? (Click on photo to enlarge.) I wonder if they can actually eat that.

Mourning dove nest

I mentioned in Saturday's post that mourning doves tend to make really flimsy nests. Here's a classic example, although the photos don't really do it justice. I discovered this nest yesterday morning as I happened to walk under it and the mother flew off. This morning I went back out with the camera and from quite a distance caught her still on the nest.

I'm sorry, Mama Dove, but your nest is a total mess. I'm amazed that it even hangs together enough to hold your eggs. But it must be sturdier than it looks, because we had some rain and strong winds on Saturday, and it still hangs there in the tree without even that much shelter from the leaves!

Amazing, isn't it?

I also checked on the other nest yesterday to see if those babies survived the weather. As you can see, they remain nice and cozy. And they're growing fast!

More babies

Last Monday, as I was mowing, I discovered another nest. This one's a mourning dove nest. On Monday, it looked like this:

This is one of the better-built mourning dove nests I've seen. They tend to make really flimsy nests.

Here's how it looked on Thursday (kinda hard to see, but there are 2 babies in there):

We had some wind and rain overnight that night, but I checked yesterday, and the babies had survived nicely.

Unfortunately, the wren abandoned her nest after I took the photo of it. I guess she didn't like my photo session. I feel bad about that. I don't know if the babies would've survived though, anyway. The nest was in what I thought was a kind of poor spot. It was right at the very top of the butterfly bush, with hardly any leaves covering it. I hope mama wren found a better spot and is happily setting on some new eggs. And I'll be a little more careful if I ever find a wren nest again (not saying I won't take pics, though!).

Look what I found!

I discovered this little wren nest yesterday. So tiny... and such intricate work in the building of it!

It was empty yesterday, but this morning it had the one egg in it. I'll keep you posted!

More pests! + a tip

Yesterday the barn swallows were checking out the windows on the house all day. I guess they knew it was gonna rain again so there'd be plenty of fresh mud for building nests. Well, it rained, and it didn't take 'em long this morning to get to work. Here's the lovely pair on the garage roof right outside the entry window. Notice the one higher up, the male, has his beak full of mud.

They'd already managed to get several trips' worth of mud on the top of the window before I noticed, so I scrubbed that off and applied my "swallow repellent". I learned this trick years ago, when we first began getting plagued with swallows trying to build nests on our house. You have to hang 2 strips of black (and it MUST be BLACK... or maybe dark brown? never tried that) plastic near where they're trying to build. I cut about a 2-inch wide strip off the open end of a garbage bag, then cut it so that it's in one long strip, and tape it from the center to the overhang on the house. When it flutters in the breeze, it must appear to the swallows as other birds or something. But by golly, it works every time!

I had tried numerous other things when we first had the problem... like strips of foil and I don't remember what all else. I actually even resorted to opening a window and shooting one of the little stinkers (shhhh... don't tell on me!) off the deck railing, I was so desperate! Then one day in a little town near here, I noticed a house that had all these black strips hanging from the eaves. I knew who lived there, so I got brave and called her to see if, by any chance, this was to keep swallows away, and more importantly, if it worked. She was happy to share her trick with me and told me that it indeed did work! And I've been doing it ever since! Some years the swallows don't bother the house, but most years they do, and I'm so thankful to have a way to "repel" them (without having to shoot 'em!).

Here's a photo taken after I'd hung the strips (and already replaced the screen). Can't you just see the disappointment in his eyes? I know... I'm so mean....

Someone else is disappointed, too. Willow... she LOVED watching them! Sorry, kitty.

Added note: You may have to play around just a bit with where you hang the strips. Sometimes just one per side of the house will do the job, but if the birds are really persistent, you may need one by each window. I found that where I had hung the above strip wasn't good enough... they brought more mud to the window, anyway. I ended up moving it closer to the window, and that did the trick. Of course, if you have crank-out windows like we do, that may make closing the window without getting the strips caught in it a bit of a pain, but once the swallows have given up, you can move the strips farther from the window.

Peregrine falcon hatch

Today's the day for the peregrine falcon hatch in Great River Energy's nesting box high atop their Elk River, MN, station's power plant! I've been watching occasionally today, and so far I've seen 2 eyases (baby falcons). There are still 2 unhatched eggs. The mother keeps them pretty well-covered, but she moves around a lot, so you can catch a glimpse once in awhile. To see the livecam, click here. There are more details on that page, plus links to photos of last year's hatch and banding. Pretty interesting!

If you want to see another livecam on a nest with 3 nearly-grown eyases, click here. They're pretty fun to watch, because they're stretching their wings and hopping around a lot... atop the City Hall building in San Jose, CA. (They're also leaving a huge mess! Ack!)

Robin's egg blue x 4

I found this nest in an evergreen tree in our back yard. Of course Mama Robin wasn't too happy with me when I took this photo, but I was quick, so as to not disturb her for very long. The last egg was laid Friday morning, the 16th, so in 12-14 days from then, there should be babies. I will keep you posted!

Robin's egg blue

The birds must be having trouble getting their nests made this year or something. Maybe because of the weather? Anyway, in 2 days I've found 3 different eggs just lying on the ground.

This first is a robin egg, found at the base of a tree.

This next one's a wren egg, I think. The photo doesn't really give much perspective on the size. I should've held it in my hand to show how tiny it is. Compare it to the blades of grass, I guess. I found it under the edge of a bush right next to the house, with no nest in sight.

I think this third one is a blackbird egg. It was just out in the open. Poor birds.

Here's a beginning of a nest that I found in the old asparagus stalks that I was cleaning out of the garden. It's pretty tiny... maybe made by a wren, or perhaps one of those song sparrows I showed you a couple days ago. It has very fine hairs and stuff woven together in it.

In contrast, here's a big nest near the top of a lilac bush... probably a blackbird nest. It may be an old one from last year. It seems to be made of mostly twigs, "sewn" together with bits of twine string. I think it's amazing how birds can build their nests!

Note that the lilac bush is finally getting little green leaf buds!