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| Blue Jay kids are brats |
The Sitting Porch. Each year birds of one species or another, and even sometimes more than one at a time, nest on the porch where I grow my houseplants in summer...and where I like to sit and watch the valley and observe the occupants of the yard.
With some birds there is no problem at all. Last year a Mourning Dove used an old robin nest and never once flew, even when I sat a few feet away.
American Robins are utterly flighty and ridiculous though, and I hate it when they nest on the pillars. Silly things will not be on the porch at the same time as I am and make a big noise about it too. I usually water the plants quickly and leave them to it. Kind of annoying though, as I like to actually, you know, use, the porch.
No robins this year, but instead a pair of House Wrens. I let them enjoy their fiefdom with their first nest, in the little white house, which Matt and Lisa gave me for my birthday many years ago. For being just a decoration that one has an amazing history of having been nursery to Black-capped Chickadees, Carolina Wrens, and many, many broods of House Wrens.
However, when they came back just a very, very, very short time after fledging their first brood and built a nest in the other box...the red one, a Christmas gift from Alan and Amber...also not intended for birds...I got irritated.
Okay, you guys. You can nest on my porch twice, but this time I am not giving in. I will sit out here when I want to and you can just deal.
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| Look closely...you can see Mama's beak at the bottom of the hole |
It was as if they read my mind. Instead of panicking every time I wanted to water the banana tree or the petunias, the little hen soon stayed right in the box peering out at me. If she is out to lunch, as long as I sit very still, she comes right up on the porch and settles on her eggs.
Détente is a wonderful thing!
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| Feed me, Ma! Feed me! |
Along with that happy development, the Blue Jays brought their fledglings in to the feeders for the first time this summer. And after a couple weeks of the very best goodies being served in the little feeder in front of that porch, they even come in and let me photograph them.
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| Wot! No peanuts? |
Yay!
And yes, I am still feeding. A top notch bird expert I follow feels that the bird illnesses (mostly to the south of us) are insect treatment related rather than infectious, and as everybody local seems healthy and happy, I will continue until I see a reason to do otherwise...stop spraying cicadas, will ya?
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| American Goldfinches have never been too worried about my presence on the porch |
I always worry about that spray plane flying here and there and everywhere. It has to NOT be GOOD for the birds!
ReplyDeleteYeah there is a lot of buzz about bad bird seed and how it can even be toxic for people to handle when cleaning out the feeders. So much toxicity in the foods we produce and the way we treat the land/plants.
ReplyDeleteLovely shots of the blue jays!
Linda, I sure can understand that. They used to spray for blackflies in the 'Dacks, and although it was nice to meet fewer of them, it was also concerning. I don't guess they do it any more.
ReplyDeleteShirley, I guess in the southern US birds are dying like crazy and some are blaming it on people spraying the 17 year cicadas, which the birds then eat. They are not sure yet though. We don't have those cicadas emerging here, and so far no dead or dying birds either.