Open Wide it’s Breakfast Time!!!
So thrilled to have Eastern Bluebirds nesting in my yard for the first time. I am happy to say that three babies fledged successfully on July 22nd. I took this photo from a far distance with a 600mm lens so I did not disturb them. This picture is of the Male feeding his young. I was amazed at what great parents these Bluebirds were. It was a thrill to watch this entire nesting experience from the day the male went into the house, brought back the female and fledged 3 precious little ones
No Room at the Inn
I had a very nice fairy garden set up on some shelves on my back porch this summer. It was made up of geodes, Dept 56 fairy tale house, and fairy figurines. One day, I noticed the fairy figurines had been tossed off the shelf and replaced instead with a small grouping of sticks. I threw the sticks off the shelf, thinking my husband had did this as a joke. But he said he had no idea how the rearrangement occurred. Until the next day, we noticed that the fairies were gone once again and this time you could tell a nest was being built amongst the geodes. The next morning, my husband woke me up and exclaimed, “I know who is building the nest!” And I got up, looked outside and saw two mourning doves working together; one sitting and forming the nest and the other going and getting twigs. They were so beautiful and the nest so perfectly situated next to the fairy house, that we decided to let them stay. I did some research and found out who the female and male were. In this picture, the male had just given the female a branch to add to the nest. She searched amongst the other twigs and then, very carefully positioned the twig into the nest. It was fun & interesting to see them work together. They would work for awhile in the morning and then, disappear for the rest of the day, returning the next day to continue. They did this for about 4 days and then, finally stayed on the nest, after laying 2 white eggs.
Red-bellied dad and junior
This summer, we’ve had two pairs of red-bellied woodpeckers feeding fledglings around our property. I was lucky to be sitting outside early one morning when this male brought one of his offspring to a nearby birch tree to feed it. Watching birds care for their young is always magical.