Wednesday Updates

The Eastern Bluebirds fledged the day after I bought the mealworms for them. The parents are still hanging around though and taking care of the additional food. I checked the nestbox after I had not seen either one of them near it over the course of a week and found 3 unhatched eggs. After checking in with Karen at Bird Watcher Supply, it was decided to leave the nest/eggs alone and check in a few days to see if there are any more eggs. If there aren’t any more eggs in the nest at that point, then it is safe to assume that those eggs are from the brood that fledged and are not viable. If there are more eggs then, woohoo, we have more babies on the way.

I just spotted a male Indigo Bunting outside the office window. We may see one of those a year. They do summer here though, just, not in our yard. Also the Rose-breasted Grosbeak numbers have picked up. I am seeing multiples at the sunflower feeders and have seen one male on the feeder cam. Thanks for visiting, Jim

New Arrival

Just now looked out at one of the sunflower feeders and see that the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are migrating through. There is a beautiful male happily dining by himself. Excellent!

They Grow Up So Quickly

I am amazed at how much we missed of the development of the Eastern Bluebird hatchlings. I went over to Bird Watcher Supply to pick up some cracked corn and a bag of mealworms to help the Bluebirds out. The female found the mealworms within 30 minutes of me setting them out. I watched her carry a mouthful over to the nestbox and could see the young ones beak and head sticking out of the entrance. This is a normal sized Bluebird house and I do not believe the nest is built up that high. They must be close to fledging at this point. This couple ran a very covert operation. Let’s call it “Operation Babies: We don’t have any babies”.

The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird has remained true to the feeder and the tree next to the deck. He is starting to get a little more comfortable around the feeder and will land on the perch now. I forgot to mention that we had a Blue Jay family visit the cracked corn tray recently. There were five total and at least three of them were offspring. Beautiful birds.

Another nice one this week was getting to listen to Whip-poor-will in the woods behind the house one night. They might actually summer here. We seem to be right on the border of migration/summer home.

Chirps Of Joy

The other day when I posted that the Eastern Bluebirds had selected our nestbox, I was apparently a little late noticing They are now busy feeding their brood. My first clue was seeing the female carry a fecal sac away. Today, we can even hear them from the kitchen window. Awesome. More to follow.

More On The Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Since my last post I have seen the hummingbird I spotted in the tree several times at the nectar feeder. It is an adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Hopefully, I will have more time next week to watch for him and get a little closer look. Nothing else new here.

Updated Update

I was outside fertilizing a few plants and noticed a hummingbird in the tree next to the deck where the feeder cam is. Too far away to tell the sex. I did see it dart out to snatch up an insect before I went inside. I have put out fresh nectar for the little one. Very Cool.

Visitor Changes

The wonderful crowd of Purple Finches seem to have moved on towards their summer grounds. I did see one female Purple Finch on Tuesday at the window feeder. That is the only one I have seen in the past few days. I missed calling out that we still have Song Sparrows in our current visitors last week. Also, I am still awaiting the arrival of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. At least I know the the hummingbirds are in the area from other reports.

The Eastern Cottontail Rabbit has become more of a regular visitor in the mornings at the cracked corn tray. The White-tailed Deer are still fairly regular, even though the vegetation has greened up. I sat in the bedroom the other evening and watched a herd of seven or more grazing outside the fence on vegetation and in the back yard eating the cracked corn.

Species Update

It has been a little while since I jotted down a current list of species dining here. This list will include the winter visitors that remain.

House Finch, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Bluebird, American Crow, Mourning Dove, Northern Cardinal, Dark-eyed Junco, Chipping Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brown-headed Cowbird, Blue Jay and Eastern Phoebe.

Current non-winged visitors are White-tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontail, Grey Squirrel, chipmonk and most likely raccoons during the night. While working in the yard yesterday I caught a glimpse of one of our most common lizards. It would have been a Five-lined Skink or an Anole Lizard. All it saw was the tip of its tail as it scampered away.

New visitors expected any day now include Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

I Think My Services Have Been Requested

Hey dude…….Getting a little low on the sunflower meats out here….