Oriole Visitor

The other morning while enjoying my coffee I saw something yellow in the trees behind the house. At first I thought it was a golden finch but after snapping a few shots I saw its partner a few branches away. The pics are terrible and apparently orioles don't like to hold still for photos. They are awesome birds.

(Snapped a few pictures of the bluebird family checking out the neighbor's house. I don't know why they insist on looking in this death trap of box but at times I think it attracts them to mine (which was a death trap this year...hosp attacks, and rodent attack). I have never seen them actually choose that box. They only look in it. They later flew over to my box and then took off. March is just around the corner).

Tater's solution to the rodents and bluebird killers. He loves hunting them.

Here We Go Again

The new and improved house (Texas Bluebird Society TB1-C with heat shields). Roof heat shield is 3/4" cedar and the west facing shield is made of 1/8" plastic painted with several coats of exterior white latex paint to eliminate the opaque quality of the plastic. 

I also purchased a mister for those really hot Texas summer days.

Working on a spooker to put up today.

*****Update*****

I was too late with the spooked. When I went out to make sure everything was the right size I found an egg outside of the box with the < > beak mark or the house sparrow. When I looked inside I found this.

I am so frustrated. I am also wondering if it was the heat that killed the previous 4 babies or if it was a house sparrow attack that didn't leave any signs on the 2 day old baby birds. Note to self, put up sparrow spooker as soon as that first egg is laid. 

Cedar Waxwings

The Cedar Waxwings arrived. They will probably only be here for a day or two but they are something to watch when they arrive. They swarm the junipers and fill the air with their soft high-pitched trill "brezee zee" call. In the third picture there is a squirrel wondering who these birds are. He looks scared.