Hair-Crazed Titmouses, Wrens and Odd Nests, Thrasher Babies
Note the fluffy stuff in that circular thing. The circular device was originally meant to hold an ear of field corn. This would then hang from a tree to feed the squirrel-rodents. Instead I turned it upside down and now fill it twice a week with my pets' hair, particular the dog's. But I put human hair in it too when I clean my hair brush!
The titmouses love this hair and its real fun to watch one of these cute little birds fill their beak with dog hair and try to get it all...MUST GET IT ALL! The eggs need to be nestled in softness, must get it all!
Daughter and I sat and watched titmouse pulling hair out of that thing, loading his beak down till he looked like a little bird Santa Claus. Then he couldn't get air born so he struggled with that, eventually got to flying but he swooshed and swished all over that yard trying to fly with all that hair in his beak.
It was cute as all get out.
Thrashers Fledge
The top picture is a parent thrasher warning its youngster, in the bottom pic above, to be still and not move. This is because I was peeking into bushes where young thrashers had fledged. Note the bottom picture, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, the little thrasher sat still as I took his pic. "Don't mind me," he seems to say. "I'm just a leaf."
Heh.
Wren's Nest
In the bowels of a piece of porch furniture, Mrs. Wren laid four eggs so I can't watch TV on my porch for a while.
Every year a pair of thrashers make a nest in my hedge rose.
Except this year. This year they have a nest in a neighbor's bush! To add to this snub, they gather their nesting materials and bug food from MY yard.
I'm thinking of filing a complaint to the Sussex county Department of Land Deeds and Boring Bureaucrats. For if my yard is not good enough for their nest, then so should my food and nest materials...not to mention my fountain...be out of bounds?
Please, don't give the bureaucrats any ideas. They'd love to form a Department of Garden Bird Territories and Human Land Boundaries.
New Rhododendron
It's been three years since I planted this rhododendron in a corner of my house. Big bountiful buds promise a beautiful bloom.
Ants in Your Peonies
Well I tried to get close enough to get pics of the ants climbing all over these peonies.. It was very sunny and I'm no camera expert at any rate. But you can see the big promising buds of this double-blooming peony.
This is REAL Recycling
Note the fluffy stuff in that circular thing. The circular device was originally meant to hold an ear of field corn. This would then hang from a tree to feed the squirrel-rodents. Instead I turned it upside down and now fill it twice a week with my pets' hair, particular the dog's. But I put human hair in it too when I clean my hair brush!
The titmouses love this hair and its real fun to watch one of these cute little birds fill their beak with dog hair and try to get it all...MUST GET IT ALL! The eggs need to be nestled in softness, must get it all!
Daughter and I sat and watched titmouse pulling hair out of that thing, loading his beak down till he looked like a little bird Santa Claus. Then he couldn't get air born so he struggled with that, eventually got to flying but he swooshed and swished all over that yard trying to fly with all that hair in his beak.
It was cute as all get out.
Sad Thing is That This is True
The Cacti Grow In the Swamp
Got a cutting of this handsome plant from a friend and love it! Soon it will fill the garden with lovely yellow blooms. Will have pics then.
It is spring of 2013 and goodness I thought it would never come.
I lost my husband of 25 years last week. I will be enjoying spring this year by myself. He is in heaven filling his lungs with fresh air and meeting his Dad once again.
It's a bit sorrowful (and I HATE sorrow) in that my beloved Billy adored the birds and backyard birding was my passion.
The cardinals are back as they are every year. Last year they nested in my winterberry bush. Goodness the thrashers are back. He sings like a mockingbird but he's a handsome thrasher and his songs are beautiful. He does a wonderful wren song.
Speaking of…..just this morning I awoke to the loud fruity sound of "witchity, witchity, witchity". There are no more funnier birds to have nest in your surround than a wren couple. They choose the most unlikely places for their nests. And their children are content to sit in the nest, stacked like cute little logs, impervious to human peeks.
Billy loved to peek into last year's wren's nest, which was in a potted plant that I could not water for the wren family's nest. He'd tell me "the baby wrens don't mind if you look into the nest. They look like bird logs in there." He'd follow this anecdote with a happy chuckle.
As for the gardens, first and foremost, the moles and voles are under control. It was a job and there's still activity but last year those creatures damn near destroyed some of my beautiful hedges. The voles are opportunistic little critters that avail themselves of the mole runs and chew your plants from the bottom up.
The cure involved juicy fruit, purchased "clatter-stakes" that scare the critters that danger is a bout, they should scoot, and, in some cases, the dog.
The voles got themselves all in an uproar over the clatter-stakes that they scattered everywhere; many of them ended up in the house to the delight of four indoor cats. Those voles are no more.
So below, beginning of hedge rose growth. I like to capture its growth as it heads towards a full bloom by the end of May.
Below is the beginning of my fern growth. I always think they look like tiny alien forms of life. Soon they will be very tall with a leafy bloom.
Below, my lily-of-the-valley bush. I want to bad to move that thing because it's now growing below a huge Wigelia. I have a plan.
Below, my cactus plant which blooms gaily every year even though it is growing in a swamp. I consider it adaptation of the highest order.
Finally, below a pic of my house BEFORE the great landscaping project. I don't know if it will look better or even if it will be effective. I only know that the front of my lot has a real nice sloping berm that will hold lots of low-level bushes and my own annuals.
We need to get rid of some of the lawn.
Billy wasn't all that interested in my gardens so they will continue to be mine. I am having some professional landscaping done, some tree-trimming and such.
Gardening will go on without the sorrowful memories. Those bird fellows in my surround, however, will bring a bitter-sweetness. Billy would have loved them so.
So here it is mid-May 2012 and already there's bird activity, indeed a pair of cardinals had a nest in the serviceberry bush, the babies having now fledged and the cardinals at it again. For like the good Catholic birds they are, they were sent forth to multiply and multiply they will.
It begins around our place in early February as our cardinals do not migrate, they winter right here with us in mildly wintered Delaware. The red guy gets to the top of every then leafless tree and he sings to the world all about that here he is, a fine red fellow with tall trees upon which to sing all over a territory that includes berry bushes and human-provided backyard feeders. Yes he says all that while up there singing as in cold February, when spring seems so far off, the red guy's up there singing and stretching the truth about his value like all males of every species before him.
Passing female cardinals should hear his song and his braggadocio and they should be transfixed to come down and check it out.
As I sit in my lawn chair, between circuits around my workout track, no more than six feet above me, a buff colored reddish tinged bird sat on a branch and answered the red guy then up in the trees still singing his charms. I wanted to grab a camera, I wanted to shout for the world to come see. For of all the places around the property that red guy was claiming to be his, a female finally seduced by the song flies in. And she lands on a limb six feet over my head? And as I hold breath to desperately not scare her off, she begins to sing a song to him, not his powerful songs that he belts out to fill the early spring blue skies. She sings a softer rendition of his song and with my jaw still hanging, I ponder that God so loved me he allowed me to have a front row seat to a sweet spring story.
I must suppose that she introduced herself to the red guy, or maybe visa versa, as there was a period of frantic activity, by now we're into mid-March, still a chilly time. One day I note the two cardinals busy flying in and out of that serviceberry bush and dawn breaks over my marble head. Sure enough they built a fine nest, deep in the briar of this bush's many tangled limbs.
The baby cardinals have since fledged and I see the red guy flying around from time to time. I have heard the baby cardinals, which sound like change jiggling in the pocket. I have not seen the young ones but from what I hear they seem to be fine.
Another morning I sit at my dining table on the cusp of the twilight. As I scan my magazine and eat my dinner I look up and sitting on my feeder, munching oh so casually on a seed, is a beautiful all blue bird, the color of ink and in fact, it is an Indigo Bunting! Once again my jaw drops as I frantically summon husband to come see.
We had an Indigo Bunting come visit our feeders last year, not necessarily the same one as how can one know such a thing?
At that time husband called me in to come see this beautiful blue bird. Indeed I did catch a glimpse of the Indigo bunting but only as he was flying away. THIS time the Indigo Bunting enjoying my sunflower seed was quite leisurely, enjoying his chew, and he sat on the feeder perch five minutes as I watched him in awe.
See cardinal outline in box
The other morning I am exercising in my back yard and suddenly, in front of me, is a pretty Blue Bird! The bluebird landed on the ground and was furiously pecking the ground for bug objects so the best was yet to come.
First, bluebirds are rare around my area in that I live in a place with many trees. Bluebirds prefer open meadows as their main bug food stuff are bugs that fly. So as soon as I saw him packing around in my backyard, only about eight feet from where I stood, silent and quiet and marveling again that God seems to send these birds to me that I see them so clearly. Sometimes I think God's so proud of His beautiful bird creations and He knows how much I too love them, well I'm thinking maybe it's a little bit of bragging on God's part, insert smile here.
The bluebird gathers a beak full of bugs and I know that no matter what the species of bird, all of the bird children are fed bugs in the early days in the nest and the first few weeks after they fledge. I pondered where the bluebird fledglings were that led their father to this semi-wooded area in search of bugs.
I followed the bluebird as he flew up upon a branch and soon I heard the hungry cries of what could only be a mess of baby bluebirds all waiting their bug food from the parent.
For the next twenty minutes I watched both Mom and Dad bluebird as they descended onto my lawn, committing larceny by stealing my bugs, and saw the little bluebirds, who could fly and were busy flitting about between Mom and Dad as they carried bugs up to hungry eager baby bluebird beaks.
Then there was the catbird.
Indeed.
Every year we have a catbird nest somewhere around here. The catbird is a first cousin of a mockingbird and the catbird sings as loudly and imitates as well as his mocker cousins. In fact husband began to grouse about the loudness of the catbird.
And indeed the catbird did sing, all day and some of the night. Indeed he was quite loud and not nearly as secretive as he normally is. A few times he even landed on various of my garden ornaments. Always he sang, the song of the robin, the scream of the Blue Jay, the warble of the goldfinch. His songs amused me but curmudgeon husband was a big put out.
I must suppose the catbird has found a mate as it's been quiet of late. I suspect that soon we will hear the plaintive "meow" call of the parents as they summon their catbird youngsters to stay close.
Finally, just the morning of this writing, once again as I am running my exercise track, I see two thrashers all busy rummaging through leaves and sticks and obviously choosing nesting materials. God once again sends me two of His creations and the thrasher too mimics the songs of his bird competitors.
The thrashers have been guests on our property several years, preferring to set up housekeeping in our hedge roses. They did not nest in the hedge roses last year and I missed them.
Thus I was quite happy that they came as a pair and goodness, they were going through the debris of the trees with a passion. Since I was in the back yard, I wasn't at all sure where they were setting up a nest.
About an hour later, all exercised and resting on my porch swing, sure enough I note Mr. and Mrs. Thrasher all busy flying in and out of the hedge rose. My what a pretty pair they were. Of course I called out curmudgeon husband to see and with good timing he came onto the porch and was treated to the site of both of the thrashers as they picked up leaf bits to shake about, either keeping to fly into the hedge rose to use for nest assembly, or to cast aside with disdain as building material unsuitable for a nest.
I suspect that within a few weeks we will have young thrashers and maybe even some fledgling catbirds as well.
I must thank God for sending these glorious creatures my way.
Four weeks after quadruple coronary bypass and with THAT story told, time to pay attention to things that bring about an upbeat attitude. Not to mention an emotion so strong that it equates to nothing less than what life is all about and the joy of being able to live it.
First, the state bird of Georgia decided to build a nest in my hedge roses. I was just so honored. We've got pics of both the hedge roses what took over the world and the Brown Thrasher which so availed itself of that thorny bush.
Second, a video garden tour. My gardens won't win the prizes from Better Homes and Gardens but I built it with plantings from the old homestead and new native plants. This year, the fifth year of my handiwork, it looks right nice.
There's also plenty of garden pics for those without video capability.
Pic of the Day
The Garden Matures
It's now been five years since I moved to my homestead of Serendipity Shore here in the swamps of Delaware. I'd left a plot of land in neighboring state Merryland that I called Critter Cove. Critter Cove had the benefit of fifteen years of my gardening ministrations. My Delaware home had a lackluster garden with no lawn whatsoever when I moved in. Over the five years I've planted various plantings from the old homestead, plenty of new ones from native plant sales, and I've added a few new gardens.
In this year of our Lord 2008 I finally discover that I've achieved my first gardening goal from that moving day of five years ago. Only now I've got to un-do a lot of my handiwork in my Serendipity Garden now run slightly amok.
For a perfect garden would be one that has perennial blooms that bloom happily for each segment of the growing season. Said garden would be neatly planted with plants that have enough room to grow without crowding out the others with space for a few annuals to accent the collection. The plants should attract the birds, butterflies and critters to use, opportunists that they are.
If a garden matures well, blooms will accent the space in each applicable garden season, the plants will wax and wane with those waxing taking over for the waning. The necessity of mulch will be a minor thing as the properly spaced plantings prevent a wild undergrowth of noxious weeds.
So I don't have to mulch every other day as I used to but now I face gardens that are, let me admit the truth, almost running away with plants wanting to grow and a few of them are selfish and don't want to share the soil.
This means, next year when my heart has healed and it is ready for the challenge, I'm going to have to dig out some of those plants and put them somewhere where they have more room to roam.
Below is the video of my garden tour of May 2008. Enjoy.
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