A Mother's Love

The temperature has been all over the map around these parts. The warm weather forced flowers and trees to bloom earlier than usual. But plants weren't the only things that were fooled.
Our killdeer, that I've posted about a few times already, built their nest and laid 3 eggs. The nest, which is on the side of our driveway, is marked with rebar and landscape tape so the UPS guy, or anyone for that matter, doesn't run over it. It is impossible to see, if you don't know it's there.
Well, the weather has turned and we've had a few cold days with even colder nights. They were predicting 1/2" of snow for today and all I could think of was the killdeer nest. We've seen her sitting on the nest in pouring down rain in previous years, but the thought of seeing her sitting in the snow was a sight that I didn't want to see. I had visions of taking the cedar cat house and inverting it over her and the nest, but in reality I would never do that.
So far there has been no snow. This morning when I drove out the driveway, I saw her sitting there in the cold (20's), put the truck in reverse and ran in to get the camera. I stopped the truck next to her and took a few quick photos.
Nature amazes me constantly. This pair of killdeer come back every year. They build their nest in the driveway, no matter what is going on around here. They sit on the nest until the eggs hatch and then they're gone.
Until next time.....

Busy Birds

I love this time of year, when the birds come back and start building nests and raising their young. I think they're pretty used to me and my camera by now.

1. I have no idea what kind of bird built this nest. I just discovered it this morning. See the entrance at the left? I'll be watching to see who comes and goes. This is a first for us.
2. Mr Bluebird taking a break in the shade, near one of the bird baths. Him and Mrs B are in the process of building a nest. We have another couple that built a nest on the far end of the garden. I tried to take some photos, but they didn't come out good. It's one of our older bluebird boxes. Our new ones have a view window we can look through.
3. Mockingbird eggs. They built this nest in a red honeysuckle bush, about three feet off the ground. Not smart at all. It's dark in there. I had to lighten the photo up quite a bit just so I could see the eggs. I didn't want to stick around too long, so I snapped a few quick shots and split before the birds came back. Mockingbirds don't like anyone messing around their nests!

Backyard Bird Update

Here's an update to this blog post, as promised. Like in real life, things don't always go as planned.
Out of the five nests, two of them hatched and went out into the world without a problem.

All four Robin eggs hatched. I took a few photos of them in nest, but tried to stay away. Mama Robins are very protective and I didn't want to upset her.

The House Wren eggs hatched safely too. That was a given. After all, she did build her nest in a bluebird box! I took one picture of the babes. They're still in there. I'll try to get another if I see them when they come out of the box.

Something got the eggs in the Chickadee and Thrasher nests. We're thinking that it was a snake because the nests weren't disturbed.

One night, something got into the Red Finch nest. We woke up to find the nest on the ground. I have some ideas as to what happened to them.

I've got my eye out for more nests. If I find them, I'll be camera ready.

Until next time.....