Nesting Updates

I checked the bluebird nest yesterday morning and one of the five had left the box already. When I checked it yesterday afternoon, all five of the chicks had left. I always have mixed feelings on fledging day. On one hand, I'm really happy to know there are five more bluebirds out there and a second brood can get started. On the other hand, I'll miss checking on them and taking pictures to post here. Hopefully in about three weeks we'll have more eggs in the nest.

I took the camera out to the gourd rack to take pictures of the complete clutch today. It's interesting to me that they are using willow oak leaves as their green leaves. There is a big pecan tree about 60 ft. away from the gourd rack, but for some reason they're flying over to the woods and picking off willow oak leaves. Anyway, here are the pictures.



While I was mowing today, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher flew overhead. That's the first one of the year for me. That was fun to see.

Spring Migration 2009

Spring migration is winding down. Over the past few weeks we've had strong southerly winds at the surface which help the migrants fly right over us. Those that do stop only stop for a few hours to refuel and then take off again. The past two weeks that I went out, there were very few migrants to be seen. In fact, the woods were very quiet, with the exception of the hordes of mosquitoes. On May 1, the mosquitoes were so bad they literally chased me into the house. They weren't quite as bad on May 8, but the birds weren't there. If I had been a migrating bird and stopped here for a little bit of food, I wouldn't have stayed long either with as many mosquitoes as I would have had to deal with!

I ran a report of my spring numbers on the property. I ran the report from March 1 to May 8. I saw a total of 112 species. Here are the migrants I saw:

Swallow-tailed Kite, Mississippi Kite, Broad-winged Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, Upland Sandpiper, Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, White-eyed Vireo, Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Barn Swallow, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, Wood Thrush, Gray Catbird, Blue-winged Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Worm-eating Warbler, Ovenbird, Kentucky Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded Warbler, Canada Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Dickcissel, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole

It was a good spring for me on the property. I got 23 species of warblers (including Yellow-rumped which are winter residents, but do start changing into breeding plumage while here), both tanagers, both orioles, both grosbeaks and all of the swallows. I was a little disappointed in some of the species I missed, though. So far I haven't seen a Painted Bunting. Some of the warblers I missed include Louisiana Waterthrush, Northern Waterthrush, Bay-breasted Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler and Nashville Warbler. I didn't see a Veery, Chuck-will's-widow or Common Nighthawk (yet). There are always some misses every spring.

On a positive note, the Purple Martins have laid four eggs in the gourd. They laid the last one on Saturday, May 9 and the female started incubating that day. With the eggs taking 14 - 18 days to hatch, I have projected a hatching day for Sunday, May 24. I'll start checking them on the 22nd. I'm so excited to see them nesting with me!

The Eastern Bluebird chicks are doing well. All five of them are growing quickly. They should fledge on May 14 or 15. Then it will be onto the second brood! Here's a six-minute video I shot of the parents coming to feed the babies, and then of the babies at the end of the video. I actually shot an hour of video and was able to condense it to six minutes!

Eggs!!!

I checked the gourd where the Purple Martins had been building their nest and there were two eggs in it! The first one was laid yesterday. It will be interesting to see how many eggs they lay being SY birds. At this point, I'm just excited to see eggs in the nest! I'll take some pictures when they've finished laying all the eggs.

The bluebird chicks are doing well. I checked them on Monday and they're getting their feathers in slowly. I need to check them again today and make sure they don't have any parasites affecting them.

Update on the Martin Nest

I checked the gourd the Purple Martins are using and there is some significant progress on the nest. I grabbed the camera and took a couple of pictures:

As they collect mud for their nest, some gets on the entrance hole.


The entrance is to the left. There is quite a bit of stuff toward the front. You can see the mud mixed in with the nesting material. They are using the pine needles that we collected for them. We watched them land several times, grab a beakful of pine needles and take them into the gourd. This picture is already outdated!

I am so excited to finally have martins nesting! It's been five years of waiting. I'm looking forward to having them every year from now on!

Bluebirds Hatch and Purple Martins Build Nest

I checked on the bluebirds yesterday and the female was finally off the nest. All five eggs hatched! Here are a couple of pictures:



After I got the pictures of the bluebirds, I checked for any progress with the Purple Martins. They are slowly adding nesting material into one of the gourds. There was a lot of twigs and things that look like grass roots. They are beginning to add a little bit of mud as well. I'll know to start looking for eggs when the green leaves show up in the nest.

Saturday, April 25

Saturday was windy still, but there were several migrants still around. I guess the deluge we had Friday night was enough to keep them grounded into Saturday morning. The gully that runs through our property was as high as I've ever seen it. It was way out of its banks in several places.

I entered the woods in one of the most productive spots and it was the most productive again. I added three FOS birds there - Magnolia Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler and Canada Warbler. There were a couple of Ovenbirds around. A Kentucky Warbler and a Hooded Warbler were singing on territory. A Chestnut-sided Warbler chattered as he looked in the leaves for some caterpillars. When I got down to the new pond, a Dickcissel flew in and called from some of the trees that were knocked down during the hurricane. That's only the second time I've ever seen a Dickcissel on the property, although I know they migrate through here. I've got good breeding habitat for them.

Speaking of breeding, the bluebird eggs haven't hatched yet. I checked them today and they are still unhatched. They should hatch in the next couple of days. The Purple Martins have begun putting nesting material in the gourd. Hopefully it won't be long they lay eggs. I observed the female plucking feathers from her brooding patch on Saturday.

Bird species seen 4/25/09 (39 species): Cattle Egret, Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Laughing Gull, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Barred Owl, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-eyed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, Purple Martin, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Tennessee Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler (FOS), Blackpoll Warbler (FOS), Black-and-white Warbler, Ovenbird, Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Canada Warbler (FOS), Yellow-breasted Chat, Scarlet Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Dickcissel (FOS), Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird

Birding On A Windy Day

A strong southerly breeze didn't give me a lot of hope that there would be many migrants around today. Many of them take advantage of the winds and just keep going north once they hit the coast. Those that did stop yesterday take off at nightfall (you can actually watch that on radar between 8:30 and 9:30 usually) and continue their journey north. So, I went out this morning not expecting to see a whole lot. Unfortunately, I was right. Most of what I saw were either year-round residents or resident migrants that nest here. I was only out for a couple of hours this morning. I got back in and Eastern Kingbirds showed up in some really great numbers! At one time there were six of them trying to get to the mulberry tree on the east side of the house. A mockingbird was vigorously defending "his" tree. That was fun to watch. I thought maybe I could go out in the afternoon and catch some of the incoming migrants as they stop to refuel before continuing north. It was pretty much the same story, except for the ten to fifteen Baltimore Orioles that I found in the top of some trees. Those were the only two FOS birds I got today.

The mulberry tree has been pretty productive today. Along with the Eastern Kingbirds, I've seen Orchard Orioles grabbing a few berries. I thought I saw a Baltimore Oriole, but the mockingbird chased it away before I could get my binoculars to see very well. I keep looking for Rose-breasted Grosbeaks in there. They typically show up in there every year.

An adult White-winged Dove showed up at my feeder today. I have never seen an adult at my feeders. That was kind of fun to see, although I know that if they start increasing in numbers, I'll soon want to get rid of them because of how much they eat.

I checked the bluebird nest this morning. The eggs haven't hatched yet. I projected them to hatch tomorrow, so we'll see if I'm right. The Purple Martins haven't continued their nest-building activities. It will happen, but I'm ready for them to get started now!

Even though it was a slower day, I did end up with 43 species. That's not too bad. I checked my list against the birds I saw last year on this date and I'm fifteen species ahead for this year. I'm not sure what to attribute that to. I have seen several birds this spring that I didn't get last year, but I don't think it is that many. Maybe I just had a better winter than I thought.

Bird species seen on 4/24/09 (43 species): Great Egret, Little Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Black Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Killdeer, Eurasian Collared-Dove, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Barred Owl, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird (FOS), White-eyed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Wood Thrush, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Red-winged Blackbird, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole (FOS), House Sparrow