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| A photo I pulled off the net |
I love having birds around! We have finches and tits. And I think starlings. Saw a white pigeon even. Before we left here 13 years ago for Australia, I had around the place six bird houses specifically designed for bluebirds, mounted on posts the height of fence posts, but none of them were still here when we returned.
So far, I have constructed two new bluebird houses. My first happy family have enjoyed one of them and raised young (perhaps two chicks, I’m not sure), which I believe got mature enough to fly away to a bluebird life one recent morning. To my sadness, I was away and missed the event, but I wish them safety and goodwill. The mom and dad sure were busy feeding the chicks during the preceding three weeks or so. Constantly!
I need to open the house and clean their nest out.
Several weeks after I wrote the preceding, the whole family were still hanging around! And I have been putting out seed for cardinals, bluejays, and many other kinds of birds as well, birds I’ve not seen before and can’t name.
I also bought a new purple martin motel and now have four pairs of purple martins cruising around. The motel will hold 16 couples (in six rooms with porches on either side and four rooms in the attic). The motel sits about 6 ft higher than the old ones I still have from 20 years ago (which hold only eight couples each), so I call the new one the Nose Bleed Martin Motel.
You can see that putting our place “back together” is still a work in progress.
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| At dusk, several weeks later. I now believe I have more than a dozen pairs of purple martins! |
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| At sunrise, another week later, for the peace of the morning |
| Copyright © 2020 by Vic Midyett & Shirley Deane/Midyett |
I've noticed in the last few days that, presumably, the Bluebird parents are building another nest in the same house. The juveniles, like most, are still around, but mom and dad seem to be trying to shoo them away.
ReplyDeleteA delight of my back yard in Mebane – no, the delight – is the many birds, of maybe ten species, who grace it, morning, day, and evening, to peck seeds or suet, whether tweetingly or in silence.
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