Another drama "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." I don't like this expression when it concerns ordinary every day relationships. But when it's a matter of life or death, I agree with it. There is either a brown thrasher, a cardinal, or a robin nest in my hedge. Not sure which. All 3 birds come and go without incident. Sunday a bluejay flew right near the hedge and all hell broke loose. A thrasher, a robin, and both cardinals went after it mercilessly, chased it into the hedge (which has a welded wire fence on the other side), waited for it to come out and attacked it again, until it flew off. I do not feel one bit sorry for this bluejay. It is not starving. It's looking for easy pickings. One baby bird snatched from an open nest is probably a half day's meal. Much easier than looking for little insects all day long, like the others do. The first time a robin landed above the bluebird house, the bluebirds went after it. The robin is many times bigger. It wasn't impressed, and pretty much ignored them. Now they tolerate each other well. They share the perch all the time. I think the bluebirds realize the robins may be useful to them.
I wrote this last night. For the record (5/2/22) Monday The high Monday was supposed to be 89 with bright sun. So the night before I cut 2 more pieces of styrofoam for the top and other side of the birdhouse. I am so afraid to get near that bird house, that something will go wrong. The female bluebird did dive at me and fluttered its wings, but didn't get very close. I hate scaring them, because they aren't smart enough to know I'm not trying to hurt them. I spent all morning and most of the afternoon just watching. Baby sticking its head a little bit farther out the hole to look around each time. In the afternoon it withdrew back inside and never peeked out again for the next 3 hours. Birds are supposed to fledge in the morning. I took a 2 hour break and at 5:45 pm the birdhouse was empty! M&D did an outstanding job of confuscation. Took food into the bird house, but always brought it back out, then took indirect routes to deliver it on the ground. You had to watch closely with binoculars to notice. Over the next 2 hours, until dark, I saw a young bluebird in 4 different locations. But all within 100 feet. I think they were all the same single bird. None were ever flying. I'm afraid it might have ended up spending the night on the ground. Now I can worry about the hungry fox. I've suspected for at least a couple of weeks there was only one, because it seemed to me there was just never enough food going in. Later, no jostling to look out that hole. No fluttering of wings inside. No chirping inside. No competition. There should have been more than one to start with. The only things I can think of that went wrong are cold, heat, or another bird (house sparrow?) entered the box and destroyed some eggs. The heat spell came too late. I muddled through this. My first try at a birdhouse. Don't expect to see any of them again unless they give this another try, or show up at the feeder later. This: "After fledging, what do baby bluebirds do, and where do they go? They remain in hiding for about a week. The parents continue to feed them there. When they become nutritionally independent, spring fledglings leave their parents’ territory. The parents become aggressive towards their fledglings, perhaps to encourage total independence, and start another brood. The fledglings from the second (summer) brood tend to stay at their parents’ territory longer, often remaining together over the winter." This morning I'm confused.
I don't think the little guy made it through the night. In the morning both bluebirds showed up briefly together. The male kept going to the birdhouse just looking in. Last time he went inside and came out with some straw. Must be starting a new nest already. Took a ladder and flashlight, saw no birds in there, so I took the house down. Intending to clean it up and remodel it for summer, but thought I would have more time. The first surprise: The nest inside. A chickadee was going in early on, when M took out the vacuum cleaner stuff. Vacuum was full of cat hair. Chickadees start with layers of moss and like animal hair for the final layer on a nest. So the chickadees were there first. Sad after all that work. I don't know how any tiny birds ever survive. The second: There were 3 eggs in the nest. Four is what they typically have. I broke one accidentally taking the nest out and it looked like a normal egg. You can still see it with yolk intact (red arrow). The other two are heavy, not dried up inside. These were not new eggs. They were stuck to the grass in the nest with junk. So it wasn't the heat or predators. These should have hatched 3 weeks ago. The 2 are in the refrigerator. Will try to open them later and see if I can tell if they were ever fertile. Probably too small to tell. My guess is no. The one that broke never got started. Also sad. All that work they put in from daylight 'til dusk, all those days.
One of the two remaining eggs had a crack in the shell (my fault) so I opened it this morning. This one is almost completely developed. Death would be in the time range of the cold snap, so maybe it got too cold? Not inclined to check the last one just yet. Warning:.. LINK (to image ) Embryonic Deaths at the End of Incubation "Most youngsters that die in the egg usually die either in the first few days or the last few days of incubation. "Towards the end of incubation, chicks usually die as a result of problems associated with hatching. As incubation ends the chick has to shift from getting its oxygen through the membranes that surround it, to breathing air and also re-absorb its yolk sac (which supplies it with both food and immunity). If the temperature or humidity is incorrect at this time these processes fail to occur correctly and the chick can die." -Reference Several things lead me to believe M&D might have been first-timers, not the same pair I saw last year.
I think that the less human contact the birdhouse and its occupants have, the better. They are on their own, and do not need human intervention. The basic birdhouse is a mansion, and they will succeed or fail on their own. It is nature's way.
I agree. People mess with them too much. I never opened that bird house once during the whole duration, and it wouldn't have mattered as it turns out. However, there are a few things you can fix that they can't, if you know about them. Like remove a wasp nest, or a remove a larger dead chick, fire ant invasion, stuff like that. It worried me a couple of times, and I thought about it.
Next year I'm going to mount solar panels on the birdhouse, instead of just sun shields, and install a tiny HVAC system inside.
Catching up.... Tuesday Almost NO small birds at all, all day. Did I miss something? Worked on the birdhouse summer remodel in the basement. Cleaned it up. Painted it white. Put in more ventilation. Then my mind went to the dark side ... This yard is a death trap for small birds to nest. Why encourage them? Temporarily fastened the house to a ladder propped up against the pole, only 4 feet off the ground. Not quite finished. To see if there was any interest. Putting a square box on a round pole 7 feet up in the air is a challenge anyway, and that pole has a big hole right where you need to fasten the new house. Too much work to continue in the heat for nothing. Started mowing the back lawn, got a 10 foot strip done and remembered the farm. (What farm?) Haven't been out there in 10 days and the weeds were starting to pop up even then. It was nagging. Took off to mow out there instead. There was just time to finish by sunset. When I got there, GC and his crew had mowed again, done the pressure washing, and fixed the porch ceiling. The porch floor looks like new. They did a good job. I sent him a text message telling him to send me a bill.
Wednesday High 86, sunny and humid. Bluebirds in, out, and on top of the box all morning in spite of only 4' off the ground. Mindset back to reality after previous overreaction ... The only death trap in the yard was at the very end---poor timing and bad luck. Made a square bracket for the round pole. Ladders don't work well against round poles either. Took a heavy cabinet down on a dolly to stand on. Every time I went to the basement to get something I forgot, the birds were back at the house. I felt pressured. Got it up there and fairly level this time. Both birds still going in and out all evening. Just need to add the sun shields (bigger roof and south side), maybe a little piece of screen over the top side vents to help keep out wasps.
Thursday Hard to move in the morning due to climbing ladders and boxes the day before. Muscles I forgot I had. GC stopped by with two prices: (1) what he claimed he had spent, and (2) what he would charge a new customer. I was told to pick something between those limits. I picked new customer. We had a funny discussion about what all happened out there in the intervening time. The neighbor told him he got onto my property by walking the large tree lying just across the top of the fence, and was going to miss it. If you want to hear real neighborhood gossip, you ask whoever works around the fence. He thinks the front door in town can be replaced without too much carpenter work. Will likely go ahead with that. I need to order an 84" door first. Ruled out the driveway turnaround project. I want someone experienced with asphalt. The base is too important. All because of illegal street parking that the city won't monitor unless you hit the REPORT button. That's never been my style. GC has a 5'x10' dumpster he can leave at the house if I want, for a week beginning May 17. He will be out of town and won't need it. Said he would haul off any junk I put in it at no charge. I'll be mad at myself if I don't take him up on that. Love the way this mower works now. You have no choice but to finish the front lawn in 10 minutes. Finished mowing the whole back lawn. About 8 pm 3 hedge trimmers casually strolled across the back yard. ( LINK ) It's a jungle back there.
Sunday afternoon. Spotted a chickadee on the small roof over the basement door. It looked like it was dying. Feathers all fluffed up more than twice as big as an ordinary chickadee in appearance. Lethargic, on its belly, disoriented, pecking at imaginary food. Is this a one-off death, or is there another disease going around? After an hour searching the internet for those symptoms, including fluffed up feathers, means imminent death. Went back out hoping to find some "closure," but the bird was gone. Looked on the ground around the roof. Nothing. Now I had to watch to see if the other chickadees were affected. One looked very thin and disheveled. Two more looked fine. Was the thin one about to become sick? About an hour later "Fluffy" landed on the deck railing followed by the thin chickadee, who fed it. So Fluffy was a new baby. They both flew off together. Back to the internet. A baby chickadee puffs out its feathers and flutters them to tell the parent it wants to be fed. Imitates its parent pecking, not yet knowing what it's pecking for. Difficulty standing on flat surfaces at first. Late this morning (Monday) I put out a few seeds and took a cup of coffee to watch for Fluffy. In flies 2 Fluffys, both begging for food. M (or D) going back and forth between the two like a chicken with its head cut off frantically trying to feed them. The fluff balls have learned to preen, stand, and peck at real food already. (Update) 12:30 pm: Fluffy #3 showed up! All at the same time. Parent beside itself. Glad I didn't take the feeder down now. All 3 flew off together following the parent. I can see where it's a big advantage choosing a nest in a tree (where there are no snakes). No hitting the ground until they learn how to fly.
This has been sitting in the driveway since Friday. It is not a roll off dumpster, it's a hydraulic dump trailer, 5' x 10' x 1½'. It is now full of junk, level to the top. That's all I could come up with at the current time, and probably where one should stop anyway. A second round might be possible, if I get into a more serious throwing away mood. I wonder what a fair amount would be to pay to rent a container this size?
This is a Nandina bush at the mobile home. It has been there for many years. It has pretty berries in the fall and winter. I knew it was poisonous to goats, but didn't know the berries were poisonous to birds until last week. It is now considered an invasive species in Georgia. I took it down Sunday, along with 2 others in the woods. Will spray the stumps with Roundup when they leaf back out. Nothing is going back there to take its place. I like how the pressure washing has killed all the weeds up near the house. Wish it would stay that way. I suppose the guys took extra precautions not to harm this bush. That's the way it goes sometimes.