The later arriving birds are still building their nests, and I like this oriole nest that used grass, plastic pieces from an old tarp, dried cattails leaves, string and even the bright red string which she poked through leaving the loops of string. It amazes me how they can get even building material attached to swaying limbs to start with before filling it in.
Oriole Hanging Nest
Some birds were upset when I was mowing as they were scared off their nest and I spotted some blue egg shells on the ground. These very young robins don’t look too cute as they wait for a snack from their parents.
Young Robin Chicks
Although it wasn’t very windy today, I did find an old bird nest laying on the snowy ground under a large pine tree. At least no eggs or baby birds fell with the nest since it has been empty for months, but now it won’t be used again next year.
Fallen Bird Nest
The birds and ducks are in various stages of nesting as this week I have spotted almost completed empty nests, nest with eggs in (and which parents complained loudly when I got too close), and nests were the parents where making many trips bringing food to the youngsters.
Bluebird Nest
I startled two deer on my lawn this evening when I went outside to put more strings out for the orioles. I can’t seem to keep enough jelly or strings out to satisfy them but when I see the females taking three strings at a time, it is no wonder I can’t cut enough. And of course it is the female oriole doing all the working building the nest and collecting the strings and grass to build it. At least the males could haul the materials to the nest if the female does all the building. It is interesting to spot the red and white strings in the nests.
Strings in Oriole Nest
Watch the Orioles taking strings for building nests.
These Yellow Warblers are busy feeding their young chicks which is extra work with a cowbird chick in the nest too who is so much bigger than the little warblers. So a majority of the insects the parents bring to the nest are given to the bigger mouth of the freeloader.
Brown-headed Cowbird females skips building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. They deposit their eggs in other birds nest to raise their young, often though at the expense of the unwilling foster bird’s own chicks. But the cowbirds don’t just dump and run but keep an eye on their eggs and young and if their egg are removed, they retaliate by destroying the host chicks eggs in a term called “mafia behavior”.
The nests of the Yellow Warbler are frequently parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird so the warbler often builds a new nest directly on top of one containing the cowbird egg along with their own eggs. Sometimes there may be up to six layers if the cowbird keeps redepositing eggs but it appears this nest is only one layer.
Yellow Warblers Feeding Their Young
The video has some clips of the Yellow Warblers feeding their four chicks and the extra cowbird (but I was mad at the freeloader so I cut out most of the clips where the big mouth was getting all the food).
Certain birds let you know when you are too close to their nest and will try to lead you away from their nest, dive bomb your head or start squawking at you. The Red-winged Blackbird gets rather noisy when too close to the nest and soon both the female and male are making a fuss until I leave the area. The female was trying to feeding her babies when I spotted the nest and she wasn’t happy with me. At least this nest I could get to since most of the nests are over the water as the Red-winged Blackbirds like to build their nest among the cattails.
Red-winged Blackbird Babies
After a stormy weekend, I always wonder how the oriole nest manages to stay attached to the branches with extreme swaying and wonder how the poor eggs aren’t scrambled. But I suppose since the female spends a lot of time incubating the eggs and builds the nest, she doesn’t take shortcuts nor scrimp on the number of the fibers as it takes a week to build or longer if the weather is bad.
Female Baltimore Oriole in Her Nest
When I was mowing yesterday, I scared up a little bunny and it was cute. Course those cute bunny rabbits grow up and eat my garden so it was a good thing I wasn’t mowing at my place, especially since I later scared up a little black kitten a few mowing passes later and then a mommy cat. And again, good thing not at my place! But I did chase up a deer when mowing my yard and they do eat my garden.
Besides the four legged critters which I kept interrupting with my mowing, I also bothered the feathered kind too and scared various mothers off their nest including a bluebird. The Eastern Bluebird female makes a nest by loosely weaving together grasses and pine needles, then lining it with fine grasses. After the female lays her pale blue eggs, only the female incubates the eggs (when I wasn’t scaring her off the nest that is).
Bluebird Nest and Eggs
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site, the Mourning Dove’s nest is “a flimsy assembly of pine needles, twigs, and grass stems, unlined and with little insulation for the young.” Well that describes this Mourning Dove nest found on a snapped off tree, although I wouldn’t have noticed it if I didn’t scare her off the nest while on a hike.
Mourning Dove Nest
