Sunday, June 17, 2007

Digest for June 11 to 17th

Babies. Lots of babies.

This is the blue jay fledgling I found in my yard. It flew up to a tree when I approached.

The morning of the twelfth. I saw these Chimney Swift eggs in my fireplace.

Moments later I heard some flapping and the parent was in the firs place, held only by the firescreen.

I had to rush to work and returned that afternoon to find the swift didn't go back up the chimney, but instead found a gap in the screen and was now clinging to the window trim of my home office.

I had to open the door to the outside and then leave the room. It left within 20 minutes.





















The on the 15th, the parents made a reappearance. Both of them. This was in the fireplace.

Again I opened the front door and leave the room. Then I saw they had left a baby on the fireplace floor.






















I put him in a makeshift nest and put him back into the chimney on a ledge, hoping they would attend to him.

That same day, a very pretty male house finch came to my thistle feeder


On the 16th, got this sequence of a parent mocking bird feeding his fledge. These weren't the ones from the nest in my yard. I hear them every day, but I don't see them. Instead these guys were on east 49th street




That same day I was at the main post office off of 290 East and I witnessed a veritable nursery of mockingbirds and a Kingbird nest. No camera with me, so no pics, but it has lots of small oaks there and almost everyone has a mockingbird nest in it. Not kidding. By now, most are fledging. The kingbirds, likewise like immature trees and were in the top of a small oak, just like they were in the HEB parking lot.

Had a nasty storm overnight the 15th (knocked down a pecan limb in my yard) and dove babies paid the price. One was dead on the ground when I found it. The other was injured from the fall. I put it in a make shift nest and put it back in the tree from which it fell, nearby the original nest.


I know there are cardinals nesting too, but I've not found their nest. Soon, I'll see the fledges, I'm sure.

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