Late Summer Musings

It looks like the bluebirds are only going to have one brood this year. They are probably young birds taking their first shot at raising a family. Since they were successful this year, they will most likely be back next year and raise two broods. I still see two of the juvenile bluebirds around pretty often.

I love this time of year when the cardinals bring the juvenile birds to the feeders. By this time they have learned to eat by themselves and don't be nearly as much to be fed.

A Carolina Wren is calling outside right now. I need to get some suet in my feeder for him.

I had kind of an interesting experience on Saturday. It wasn't on the property. It was a the Gulf Coast Christian Youth Camp in Columbus. One of the kids at the camp found a female hummingbird on the ground at the gym. I'm not sure if it was a Ruby-throated or a Black-chinned. Anyway, she appeared to be stunned and I figured she had run into something like one of the lights at the top of the gym. So I held her for a little while and let the kids see her. Then I went to put her on a branch and she fell off. I picked her back up and held her in my hand. She started scratching at her neck with her feet. She arched her back and made a little squeak and then just died in my hand. I've never watched a hummingbird die. I don't know what did it, but it must have been pretty traumatic.

Fall migration isn't too far off. We should start seeing the migrants come through soon. I have seen more Baltimore Orioles in the fall than I have in the spring. This spring was pretty good for them, so I'm hoping that I see lots of them this fall.

Summertime Hummingbird and Rain!

For the second year in a row, I've had a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at my feeder for the majority of the summer. It's a female, as was the bird last year. She's here often enough that I don't think she's nesting anywhere because she would have to leave her eggs way too long and too often. But, it's been kind of neat to have her the past couple of years while I wait for the large groups in late August and September. Here's a video I shot last September of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at my feeders.



You know it's rained a lot when you look out on your front yard and see 15 - 20 White Ibis poking around looking for something to eat. That's what happened yesterday while the rain was falling. Since July 1, we've had 9.5" of rain at our house. I love that because of the lower temperatures, but hate it because I know what it means for mosquito numbers.

Pretty Quiet These Days

Things are pretty quiet around the property these days. I haven't been down in the woods in a long time, mainly because of the mosquitoes and because I've been very busy. The juvenile bluebirds continue to feed in our front yard. The Eurasian Collared-Doves have obviously had a successful breeding season. The numbers of ECDo at my feeders has increased by six in the past couple of weeks. I still occasionally see a Mourning Dove and a couple of Inca Doves at my feeders. The House Sparrow numbers have gone up, which I'm not excited about at all. It is fun to look out and see the cardinals feeding their newly fledged youngsters.

It won't be long befire the hummingbirds show up again! Just another month or so and I'll be mixing sugar water every day. Come out and see them this year!

Fledged Bluebirds

It's always a joy to watch as bluebirds fledge and start learning to live on their own. This morning one of the young bluebirds was perched on the fence in our front yard. He sat there for quite a while. Meanwhile, Mr. Bluebird was on the power lines near the road catching insects. The young bird saw this and flew to his dad asking for food. Mr. Bluebird fed him a few insects while Junior watched intently as Dad hunted. He's learning and it won't be long before he's completely self-sufficient.

Bluebird Update

The kids and I went to check the bluebirds today. They are all doing well. They're fully feathered. According to my bluebird book, they are anywhere from 14 to 16 days old. I sure wish I had been checking the box regularly so I would know when they hatched. They will probably fledge next week while I'm at camp. Hopefully I can get back in time to remove the old nest before they start nesting again!

Finally! Success!

After three nesting seasons with absolutely no success, we finally have a successful nesting in one of my bluebird boxes! There are four baby bluebirds about a week old in the box in my aunt's yard. I hadn't even been checking the box for a possible nest. So, clutch number one is well on its way to fledging. We'll watch for clutch number two soon!

On A Rainy Day

With all the rain, I've been watching my feeders quite a bit today. It was kind of a neat day at them. I had four species of doves visit - Eurasian Collared-Dove, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove and Inca Dove. I've seen all four in one day only one other time. So that's kind of special!

I've seen more Roseate Spoonbills flying over today! I can't remember a day when I've seen this many! I must have counted ten or twelve. Lots of White Ibis have been flying over as well. A Black-crowned Night-Heron perched on top of the telephone pole in the front yard for a while.

I did get on the four-wheeler this morning and check out the pond. When I got down there, an Anhinga was perched in a tallow tree along the bank. He splashed down in the water and swam off. While I was walking out on the dam, I heard some scratching noises coming from a little cedar tree to my left. I looked up and there were three young raccoons soaking wet climbing up in it. They were less than half the size of an adult.

*This isn't a sighting from the property, but I was driving this morning on Massey Tompkins and got to the intersection at McKinney and saw a Swallow-tailed Kite flying overhead with a snake that must have been three feet long! I wish I could have followed him. He was heading east toward Cedar Bayou.

Birds Seen (31 species): Anhinga, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Little Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Killdeer, Laughing Gull, Eurasian Collared-Dove, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Inca Dove, Common Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, American Crow, Purple Martin, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Sparrow