Our Purple Martin Season

One pair of purple martins set up shop and laid 5 eggs. 3 hatched and 3 fledged. The other pair that was around left. It was a fantastic experience though maddening at times. They put on such wonderful aerobatics and I spent many hours watching them soar, glide and chat up a storm. It was amazing how social the martins were and how the closer it was to fledging time, the more and more martins showed up to visit and cheer the babies on. 28 days after hatching the 3 martins took to the sky and we got to watch them. It was fantastic. They took off and were mobbed by the adult birds in an almost gang like initiation. Hopefully these martins will have a safe migration to south america and return again next year to do it again. 

Fledglings about to take flight (blue tint and its sibling in tow). I hope to see y'all next year. 

Bluebird Nest Build 2014

They're back! This year I believe I am ready. The baffle is up, it is away from the fence and I have a sparrow spooked ready to go up as soon as the first egg is laid. My RWS is dialed in and ready for any house sparrows. I love this time of the year.

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.

Backyard Projects

Whale weathervane that has been outside enjoying all the wind.

It is bluebird nesting time. The neighbor's bird house is already being scoped out by a pair of bluebirds. This house may have been put out a little late this year.

The finch are starting to hit the feeders so Jen and I built this thing out stuff that was sitting around the house. The house finch are all over the place but we haven't seen any gold finch yet.

With all the bird feeding going on we had to try the suet feeder. Tater believes that this is the best feeder and that it needs guarding anytime he is outside. The project for the week is to expand the corner beds. Going to try to smother the grass with cardboard and news paper and add a layer of soil and mulch over it.