Backyard update

May 25, 2010 | Wildlife | 4 comments

I have written much about the birds lately – mostly because I don’t have any nests right now – all the babies have left the nest and I cleaned out the houses and I’m hoping for round 2.  The bluebirds normally have at least 2 sometimes 3 nests a season.  I did want to tell you though that the Bluebird family is still around – I do see them a lot and I see to see them in groups of 3 – so I think the mom has 2 babies and the dad has 2 of the babies and they are staying together.  I noticed as I watched that the parents are still feeding the babies.  I took this picture – sorry it isn’t a very good one but you can see what they are doing –

This is the male bluebird and he would get food from the suet block while the baby waited on the top.  Then he flies to the top and puts it in the babies mouth.  So I did some reading and the parents continue to feed the babies for a couple more weeks after they leave the nest.

I see the bluebirds going into the bird houses – especially house #2 – but so far there is no nest building going on.  I’m not sure how long they wait after the first babies are born – maybe until they can feed themselves which may still be a few days away since they seem to be learning still.

Yesterday I was sitting in my kitchen at the table and I have a big picture window that looks out to the back yard.  Right in front of my window I have a fountain which the birds like to visit so I often get good pictures of the birds when they sit on the fountain – since I am inside the house I guess they don’t see me.  Anyway I noticed a bird that sat for a long time yesterday.  Here it is:

I was able to get a beautiful picture of this baby cardinal.  See the fuzzy little feathers on its side – I know it has to be a baby.  I’ve also decided that the babies are usually fat – more so than the adult birds.  This one sat for a long time on the side of the fountain.

I had a Cardinal nest in the front yard earlier that they abandoned so they must have gone somewhere else nearby and built another one and now there is a baby.

And last but not least I wanted to share with you the newest visitor to my backyard.

I found this turtle on Sunday about noon.  I heard all this noise and went to see what it was and found her.  This is a much larger turtle than what I have had in my back yard before.  I would say her shell from front to back is at least 6 or 7 inches.   I’m wondering where I have a hole that big that she could get into my fenced back yard.

Anyway we were leaving the house at that time so I left her there and when I came home Sunday night I looked and couldn’t find her.  On Monday morning I looked again and couldn’t find her.  I wanted to check for holes in the fence – I don’t want the dogs to be able to get out either – so I went back to the area where she was.  Guess what I found – her head sticking out of the ground!  She dug a hole and was buried up under all the leaves and stuff in the corner of the yard.  She only had her head sticking out.  Now it is Tuesday and this morning she was still buried.  I just checked on her and now she came out of the hole.

Does anyone know anything about turtles?  I’m wondering if she dug a hole and laid eggs in it.  I don’t want to look because she is still right there.  I’ll look for her again this afternoon.  But if anyone has any knowledge of turtles – let me know.

Thanks for stopping into to check with me today!

The babies are all grown up

May 18, 2010 | Wildlife | 1 comment

I just wanted to give you a quick report on my birds.  All the babies have now left the nest.  The Chickadees and the Tufted Titmouse’s were still there on Saturday morning.  I think they both left Saturday afternoon.  On Sunday I did not see anymore visits to the houses.  On Monday I checked the houses and both were empty.  So I have cleaned them out – since they don’t return once they leave.

Now the Bluebirds can house shop again.  I saw the male go inside house #2 this morning – that was the house the chickadees were in.  Hopefully the Bluebirds will build a second nest and raise a second set of babies this year.

For Mother’s Day the boys gave me a gift certificate to Wild Bird Unlimited and I went this weekend and bought a Woodpecker House.  We are trying to decide where to put it up and then I’ll hope to have woodpecker babies.

Thanks for checking in – when I have more news or pictures I’ll let you know.

Drama in the backyard

May 14, 2010 | Wildlife | 2 comments

On Wednesday morning I had drama in the backyard.  A variety of drama that started with a chipmunk in my screened in porch.  I didn’t see him but Aspen could smell him  – lucky for the chipmunk there were some tarps piled up in the porch and he was able to hide in there long enough for me to grab Aspen and stick him back in the house.  Magnolia was out in the yard so my plan was to close the chipmunk into the porch go get her and then let him out.  But instead when I went to shut the door to keep him in – he came right out from under those tarps walked over to me and ducked through the door and ran off the porch – Magnolia never even noticed.

Once all the chipmunks were gone Aspen came out and checked it all out – I took a walk around the yard – and much to my surprise saw one of the baby robins hopping around on the ground – so I had go scoop up Aspen again just in case the baby was still practicing his flying.  I took him and Magnolia back inside the house grabbed the camera to get a picture but they were gone.  So Wed. morning the baby Robin’s left – I’m glad I took pictures on Monday.

And there is more….while I was checking on the robins I heard lots of chattering down by the chickadee house.  I couldn’t really get a picture – they are mostly a blur – but the bluebirds are ready to build their second nest and decided it was time to start house hunting.  The house they want to look at it the one the chickadees are in.  Well you can guess that the chickadees aren’t real happy about that.  So the big blur near the house is the bluebird and the little blur on the left is the chickadee.

I did get some more pictures of the Chickadee and the Bluebird.  Finally the bluebird realized he couldn’t go into that house and eventually stopped trying.

The Tufted Titmouse babies must be ready to go soon – they are very noisy in the house and mom and dad are busy feeding them.  This morning (Friday) they were still in the house.

I have also had lots of visits from the Red-Headed woodpecker.  They like the peanut feeder.  I love it when they hang off the bottom – those are always fun pictures to get. At one point this week I thought I saw two of them in the yard so maybe they have a nest nearby.  Normally I don’t see the Red-Headed woodpecker on a regular basis.

And I have a couple more pictures to share.  I got some of one of the bluebirds getting a worm out of the yard.  The first time she picked it up the worm broke in half so she continued to work at it until she picked up both halves.  And I was watching from my kitchen window so I was able to get a good picture.

And the final picture is of Aspen – what do you think he might have been doing?  Digging himself a hole to China…….

or trying to get a chipmunk out of its hole?

Jack Russell Terriers have that instinct and Aspen most definitely has his intact.  And he stays focused.  The funniest site is when he hops around through my hostas and ferns – I really need a video of that one day.  Lucky for the chipmunks they have lots of places to hide in that part of the yard.  You would think they would find another yard to live in but they like mine just as much as the birds do.  And I think the Chipmunks had babies too – I saw a little tiny one this week – he looked to be about half as big as the ones I normally see.

Well I hope you got your fill of birds and animals today – it was a long post with lots of my rambling…..

I’ll post a stamping project in a little while.

The Babies are Growing

May 11, 2010 | Wildlife | 0 comments

It has been a few days since I put an update on my birds.  I think they all had a good Mother’s Day just like I did and I hope that all of you that are mother’s had a wonderful day.

Empty Bluebird Nest

I’ll start with the Bluebirds – look at their nest…..

It is empty – I think they left the nest on Saturday.  I had a busy day so I couldn’t really check but I saw the bluebirds in the yard and there seemed to be a lot of activity in the trees above the house so I think they were hanging out in the yard practicing their flying skills.

I did get this picture on Sunday and I think it is one of the babies.

Now it is time for me to clean the nest out of the bird house so they can start again and have a second brood this spring.

Tufted Titmouse babies May 10th

And here is an update on the Tufted Titmouse family – mom and dad have been busy feeding the babies.  I took one last peek into the house. Look at how soft and fuzzy they look – so cute I just want to touch them – but I didn’t.  They were hiding from me – they knew I didn’t have any food for them.  I won’t be opening the house any more so I’ll let you know when they leave.  Sometime this week would be my guess.

How about the Robin family – you won’t believe how much they have grown.  I wish you could stand in my back yard and watch them.  I don’t know how those 4 babies are going to stay in that little nest with

Robins on Sunday, May 9th

out falling out.  I think they are already sitting on top of each other.  Last year the nest seemed crowded with two babies and this year they have 4.

Mom and Dad are working hard to keep these four babies fed.

Robins on Monday, May 10th

On Monday the babies looked like they could pop right out of the nest.  I even had one picture that looked like they were sitting piggy back on top of each other but it wasn’t in focus so I am not posting it.  I’ll try to get some more this week.

Chickadee babies on May 10th

And last but not least an update on the Chickadees.  The babies have also grown and gotten their feathers in.  When I checked on them about 4 days ago they still had pink showing but now they look like little birds.

They are hiding from me too.  I’m not going to look into their house anymore either.  They will growing and getting ready to leave soon too.  Maybe another week or a little less.

Brown Thrasher babies

And then I found one more family of birds in the backyard this weekend.  It looks like 4 little babies hanging out together – hopping around and looking for food in the pine straw and under the leaves.  I think these might be Brown Thrasher babies.  My bird book says their nests are very hard to find usually in a bush somewhere.

The birds are little hard to see in the picture – there are three of them facing forward and the fourth one is looking under the leaves right behind the tail of the right most bird.  The Brown Thrasher is the state bird of Georgia.

So those are all the updates for today.  Thanks for checking in on them.

For mother’s day my boys gave me a gift certificate to the Wild Birds Unlimited store.  So I’ll be headed there one day this week – I just have to decided what to get – another house or more feeders or just more food or something else.   Hmmm…..

Bird Updates

May 5, 2010 | Wildlife | 2 comments

The birds are all very busy!  It is hard to keep up with them all.  I know yesterdays post was actually from last week – so those pictures are almost a week old and a lot has changed since then.  I’m going to bring you up to current on all the little bird families with this post.  I have some pictures from Sunday afternoon and then some from yesterday and this morning.

Bluebird baby peeking out of the house

Bluebirds -based on my calculations the babies should be ready to fledge any day now.  They were still in the house earlier today and mom and dad are busy feeding them.

Maybe I’ll be able to see them go if I keep my eye on the house.  I’m not sure why but it seems to me that maybe they leave late in the day or first thing in the morning because normally I check on them one day and they will be there and when I check on them the next they are gone.    Once they leave – I’ll clean out the box and hope for them to build a second nest.  The young of the first brood help raise the second brood.

Tufted Titmouse – so last week the eggs hatched and the babies were born.  They should be in there until next week some time after Mother’s day. I was able to get a picture of the babies on Sunday and then again on Tuesday.

Tufted Titmouse babies Sunday May 2nd

Tufted Titmouse babies Tuesday May 4th

I have decided that birds are born with full size mouths and then they grow into it.  All of these babies have huge mouths so they can open them up and let mom and dad drop in food – and they look like little clowns because they are so much bigger than their little heads.  It’s hard to tell how many are in there.  I know she had 6 eggs to begin with.  There are for sure 4 babies but I think there may be more in there that I just can’t see.

Robin – She had her babies!!  They must have been born over the weekend.  Yesterday and today I was able to see the babies – I thought there were 3 when I took picture yesterday but today there are 4!  And these little guys are funny!

Baby Robin - too funny!

Look at this guy with his big mouth and the fluff of white on the top of his head.  I stood up on the hill in my back yard – that is best vantage point I have of the nest up in the tree.  And I could see the babies stretching their little heads up and over the nest.  I don’t know exactly when they were born so they may be older than what I thought.   They fledge in 14 – 16 days.

Robin feeding worms

Can’t you just here them – “pick me! pick me! I want that one!”

And then today when I watched I saw 4 beaks come up for food.

Robins - 4 babies

They are lined up two and two but if you look carefully in this picture you can see two open beaks on the left and then there are actually two also on the right.  The one in the back is a little harder to see.  My book says they lay 4-7 eggs.  The nest I had last year only had 2 babies but I do think there was a third egg because I found it on the ground.

The robins are fun to watch in the yard as they search for worms.  Watch closely you will see them tilt their heads to one side – they are looking with eye that are far back on the sides of their heads.  They snatch those worms right out of the ground.

Chick-a-Dee – she had her babies over the weekend too!  I was able to get a picture on Sunday – some of the eggs had hatched but not all.  And they are born hungry!  Look at the little one in my picture.  Their eyes aren’t even open yet.  These are Carolina Chickadees that we have here in Georgia.

I finally got a picture of the mom (or it could be the dad since they look alike).  They are tiny and they are fast.  This one stopped just long enough for me to get a quick picture.

So those are the updates I have so far.  And I’ll report again in a couple of days unless I have significant news to share sooner.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the pictures and the updates.

If all the eggs mature then there will be 20 baby birds raised in my back yard this spring!