New Bird at the Feeders

Jo wanted to add a visual element to her show birdfeeder display -- something that would get potential buyers thinking Birds when they saw her display of feeders. She thought of Woodstock, safely packed away since he was last prominently displayed in her college dorm room back around 1971. I'm not sure Woodstock clued anyone into the fact that those jugs with perches and drain holes were birdfeeders, but he did serves as a great conversation starter.

Art in the Park, Columbia, MO

Friday: Drove up to Columbia, MO, a seven hour trip from our place. It rained off and on for most of the trip. Spent around five hours getting the van unloaded and booths set up. The rain stopped shortly before we arrived. Returned to the motel hot, sweaty, tired and a little muddy around 9 PM. A fantastic day-long celebration of our 35th wedding anniversary, I'd say.

Saturday and Sunday: Hot, humid and windy, but the rain and storms stayed to our north. Sales were okay.

Monday: Drove home in the rain.

(Our last art fair until at least Labor Day Weekend.)

New Bird at the Feeders

Early Bird

You know what they say: The early birds gets all the sunflower seeds -- or something like that. Even though it was still before sunrise, this flightless bandit was actually running a little late making its appointed rounds. It usually gets the sunflower seed munchies in the wee morning hours. As you can see, we are thoughtful and caring wildlife enthusiasts and have provided a platform for the raccoon to stand on while raiding the feeder. Having the coon strain and struggle to hang on just wouldn't be humane. (We gave up on those baffles months ago and should remove them. They are ugly as well as useless.)

(Jo gets the credit for this photo. While it wouldn't win any prizes, I think she did a pretty good job considering she was hand-holding the camera and using only the porch light for illumination.)

Early Bird

Go away. I'm eating.

Dave at Around Anchorage suggested sprinkling birdseed in my lap as a work-around for getting close up shots of birds without an SLR camera and telephoto lens. Jo didn't exactly follow that procedure when she took this photo, but she did manage to keep the distance between camera and bird to a minimum by stationing herself inside the house only 18" or so away from the feeder hanging outside. Then, she patiently waited for an unsuspecting subject. Patience and persistence paid off, I think. What I cannot figure out is how she managed to use a flash without getting a reflection off the glass.

Go away. I'm eating.

Baffled -- Not!

You just cannot baffle the squirrels when they can jump straight up and grab the bottom of the log-type feeder. (Photos from Saturday.)


Bits and Pieces over the past few days:

Friday evening and most of the day Saturday it rained. We picked up another 2.25 inches, giving us a total of around five inches of rain for the week. The pond is looking in a lot better shape now. Fortunately, very little precipitation fell after our temperature dropped below freezing Saturday night. No snow, sleet or icing.

We've been battling with a bad telephone connection for several days. Sometimes, no phone. Most of the time, the computer wouldn't stay connected. Every once and a while, things worked fine. I was convince the telephone company had a problem up the line somewhere. I was totally wrong -- again. We have a shorted line in the house.

I really wanted to replace that telephone line Monday, but the dogs said we should go cut more firewood instead. Rusty and Bucket insisted that it was rediculous to be crawling around in the attic on such a bright and sunny day. I removed the shorted line from the system so the other two lines worked and we cut more firewood.

Firewood

Baffled -- Not!

Wrens Are Gone

A couple of days after the last photo of the wren's nest was taken, Jo checked the nest and discovered that the chicks had disappeared. I didn't think they were old enough to fledge, but I always think chicks fledge too soon. A day went by without either of us seeing anything of the wrens. However, the following day, Jo saw an adult and three chicks on the porch. She wasn't able to get a photo because I had the camera out in the garden taking pictures of bugs.

I don't really know what was going on. It's possible that something (like a black snake) frightened the female wren into getting her chicks out of the nest a little too soon. I've watched a mama wren vacate a nest because of a snake in the past. The four wrens could have found a safe place to hide on or around the porch for a day, I reckon. Heaven knows there is enough stuff in that area for the wrens to have found a safe nook or cranny. I really don't know what happened, but Jo said the baby birds that she saw could fly and that's the important requirement for fledging.

Just because the wrens are gone doesn't mean that there are no nesting birds on our porch. There's a phoebe with eggs in a nest on top of the window frame across the porch from where the wrens were. This is the phoebe's second brood of this summer in that nest. (I assume it's the same bird.) We also had a brood of phoebes in early spring in a nest above the steps down to the basement.

Wrens Are Gone

Wrens Again

The wren chicks are growing. We think there are three, but obviously, there are at least two.

Wrens Again

Another Wren Update

The eggs have hatched and the wrens are feeding young. We couldn't get a really good look at the chicks without disturbing them too much, but they are in there waiting to be fed.

Another Wren Update

Wren Update

The wren got her nest built in the birdfeeder and is now sitting on eggs -- and doesn't particularly care for having her picture taken.

Wren Update

Wren's Nest

We were a little slow in getting our birdfeeders down for the summer. Now, I reckon we'll need to leave this one up for a while longer as a Carolina wren is in the midst of building a nest. By day's end, she had all the nesting material inside and organized better, although neatness doesn't really count when it comes to a wren's nest.

Wren's Nest