The evenings are getting cooler
but the garden still thrives, and there are sill many many baby birds around. This is the time where I like to put a camera to the ground to try and capture some of the more camera-shy visitors. The Blue Jays are very entertaining and all over the yard, the Grackle youngster are getting teen feathers, the Redwinged Blackbirds are bringing their peachy-faced babies, there are still Grosbeaks around, and today, a teen Cardinal visited too. As always when a cam is on the ground, some furries have access too.
Baby Blue Jays
are all over the backyard right now, and I love to watch them. This is fun time because they are all kinds of ages, some already quite independent while others look like fresh out the nest. What they all have in common is that they are super adorable and they all look like they came just out of the laundry.
The Grackles were the first ones
to start bringing their babies. They look and sound adorable, and I will never get tired of their cute squawks. The one in the middle followed the parent to the feeder bowl, begging for food from the left bottom corner. My favorite pose of theirs is "downward Grack", showing off their elegance and beauty.
The weather
has been interesting, with lots of rain and cooler temps after the hot and dry weeks. I am happy to see the lawn and garden grow, also because I know that all the baby birds that are growing everywhere are getting good nutrition from all the bugs and worms. After a bit of a hiatus the Orioles have returned in full force today, a good sign that their babies are getting bigger and ready to fledge. I loved seeing the very beautiful female Cardinal, the adorable baby Grack, and seeing the return of the most interesting Redbellied Woodpecker (in photo 2). Is it a boy? Is it a girl? The last photo is a regular male. It is the calm before baby birds are flooding the yard. Good times.
Video: Baby Blue!
The Bluebird couple has been bringing their babies from brood 1 that they raised in a different spot down to the backyard recently to introduce them to feeders and bath. The female is spending a lot of time in the box but I don’t think she is done laying yet. As of this morning, she has four eggs. This was an early morning scene at the pond, first she comes in, then a baby. You can hear the others faintly in the background. It is kind of neat to have them here without all the worry during their nesting.
Video: FOY Grack baby!
Very early this morning, the first baby Grack appeared at the pond. The parents seem to like "parking" the babies there while they forage, and it always reminds me of childhood days at a public swimming pool or lake, with lots of swimming and the occasional snack. The bird you can hear in the back is a Baltimore Oriole.
I am currently waiting
for a bird food delivery, so I had to stretch things a bit and only put very little out in the last couple of days. This also helps a bit with the feeder-hogging MoDo issue. However, they still have their lookouts and see me coming out or probably even recognize the sound of the door. And even the little ones know how to hog 🤣. This baby Dove tried everything to get the older bird to share. The new seed comes tomorrow, then hopefully things can mellow out here a bit. Have a great Saturday!
Sometimes, there are individual birds
that I recognize because of certain mannerisms or looks. This young Blue Jay that we call Frazzle or Frazzolino is one of these. I wrote about him here before. He seems to have suffered a head injury at some point and his head feathers are slow to grow back. He is a bit different than his siblings, a bit slower, maybe a bit more tame, but otherwise a very typical Blue Jay and very adorable. I love seeing him around and it will be interesting to see if he stays continues to hang around.
The other entertaining thing
are the loads of young Blue Jays. They are all very excited to find food and will try almost any feeder, and they will announce it too. I like photos like here where they have a bit of a sleepy eye. I have only ever seen this with the babies. They are just the cutest little “penguins”.
I haven’t seen
a Chickadee, Nuthatch, Titmouse or even Downy Woodpecker in a long time. The Grackles, MoDos and Blue Jays, are dominating yard and feeders. I can see how smaller birds stay away from that but it makes things a bit boring. So I was excited to see this one showing up yesterday. It is a juvenile Redwinged Blackbird, and guessing by the red on the shoulders, a male. I love how much orange this bird has, the whole color combination is quite beautiful.
The Redbellied Woodpeckers
seem to have more than one youngster. I have noticed a second one that has a stronger marking on the forehead. I decided to call them Canado and Canada because the red patch looks a bit like a Maple leaf. Canado is the one with the larger red patch, and he also has more streaks on the chest. I have no idea though if it is actually a male, time will tell. Canada is in pic 1, Canado in the other two.
The young Red-bellied Woodpecker
appears to have figured out the camera feeder and is taking lots of mug shots, much to my delight because I think it looks beautiful. It is still looking a bit like a black and white copy of it’s parents but there is some red coming in on the forehead. The eyes are still brown instead of the dark red of the adults. This is a very vocal bird too, very entertaining.
Gayle and Mr. Business
have begun to bring their babies back to the yard to show them the amenities (the mulberry tree next door is apparently still carrying as you can see on Gayle’s chest and very popular with all the birds here). I am not entirely sure how many are with them but I saw at least three so far. This means they are now more present here, and with that, more able to defend their nestbox. They have been frequently going in all weekend, excitedly exclaiming and taking things out. I find it funny that they still do their little rituals even for the third brood. The babies that I saw looked great, and to my surprise one even made it to the camera. It looks so comparatively small that I think it might be the runt. It does have a lot of character 😁
Redbellied Woodpeckers
are birds that I see here year-round. I love them for their goofiness and also because they are not feeder-shy. This year, the resident couple has raised one baby, and that baby has now started to come to the cameras too. The male turns into a slobbering mess every summer (he produces a lot of saliva), and molting does not do him any favors either. I think the hole nesting process must be extra hard on him. Did you know that the males actually incubate too with this species? Pretty cool. (male, youngster, female from left to right)
And yes, even more baby birds.
I have noticed a lot more Redwinged Blackbirds around this year. I have no idea why but I love that they are not camera shy. Here is a young one, the coloring is much more peach and there is of course the typical baby gape, the rosy beak “corners”.
The backyard is starting to fill
with more baby birds each day, it is the best time of the year. They are following the parents, learning how to find food, get clean and feel safe. Here are members of the thrush family, a young American Robin and two Eastern Bluebirds, all checking out the grape jelly. Funnily enough, the Bluebirds resemble the European Robin, while the American Robin looks a lot like a European Blackbird. Come good into the week!
European Starlings are considered invasive
in the US, meaning that they are not a native bird over here. They were supposedly brought to America through a man named Eugene Schieffelin who released a bunch of them in Central Park in 1890 as part of a personal project to bring all birds that have been mentioned in Shakespeare to the New World. Starlings have experienced a success story in the US, much to the detriment of some native species that were not prepared for them. As an invasive species, they are not protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty, so people are allowed to take active measures to control them. Many American bird enthusiasts are not a huge fan of them. However, they are part of the bird world here, they are fascinating in their own right, and I find it important to show them every so often too so people can recognize them and maybe become a bit more aware of their impact. (Plus, they can be entertaining and I also have followers from their native region.) There are lots of ressources about Starlings and the other main invasive bird in the US, the House Sparrow, to be found online. Here is one link with some background in regards to Schieffelin link. For an alternative view, here is another link, it is a complex topic. Without further ado, here is a young European Starling.
I loved the Grack photos so much
that I put a camera on the ground again. And this time, he was less shy. Baby birds always look so cute with their off proportions, different feathers and the vibrantly colored gape, the soft flesh around the beak base. In Grackles, it is pink, Bluebirds have an egg yolky yellow, for example. The vibrant gape is a good marker to identify a baby bird, and it also gives them their pouty appearance. There are actually several young Grackles around, in the second photo you can see that the youngster already starts to get some purple specks on the head too, so he is a bit older.
(Bonus photo of a Red-winged Blackbird is second-to-last.)
We did more gardening this weekend,
also because there isn’t a lot of bird activity going on because everybody is either incubating or taking care of very young babies. For a change, I did put a camera on the ground because I wanted to see if I could get photos of one of the adorable Grackle babies that have started to show up. And I was lucky. As you can see, they are very demanding, but Grackles are excellent parents and will dutifully feed those pink lined beaks. As always when there’s a camera on the ground, some squirrels also came by. This one had such a hilariously smug look on his face that I included him here even if he is out of focus.
In nestbox news, Gayle is incubating her five eggs and learned how to handle the Wren guard, and the Wren has surprisingly laid an egg the other day in the other box. I had kept removing sticks to keep the Wrens busy but they apparently were more determined than I anticipated. She has three eggs as of today. Interfering with an active nest of a native bird is illegal, so they can do their thing now. Hopefully, the Wren guard on the BB box will continue to work and all will be well. The Wren chose the two-holed PVC box with 6 inches in diameter. Since other birds keep exploring that box as well, I have added a hole reducer so that only Wren size can enter. Here’s to a good week!
