Monday, June 13, 2016

Changes Every Day

While I messed up and did not work on this on Wednesday, I did pull it out and stitch away on Saturday.  The large shamrock is now 1/2 done!

The many of the smaller birds the cycle of choosing a mate, mating, nest-building and raising a clutch of young is accomplished in 45-60 days.   

On Friday I observed my baby Tree Swallow.  It looked ready to fledge.

Saturday morning I observed an adult at work removing feces from the nest.
Then I was gone most of the day for family activities.

When I next looked on Sunday morning, the birdhouse was abandoned.  The baby had, I hope, successfully fledged and the family has now moved on to an area like Fern Ridge Reservoir with lots of flying insects to munch.  

I am bummed that I also appear to have missed the leave-taking of my Black-capped Chickadee family.  As best I can tell, they too moved out on Sunday.

On a brighter note, two of the Violet-green Swallow couple now are feeding babies.  This house...  

...and this house both erupt with cheeping when the parents fly in. 

Two other pairs of Violet-green Swallows are still in the construction stage. 

I am looking forward to more bird babies.

This female Evening Grosbeak comes to my feeders two or three times a day.

I never see, or hear, a male Evening Grosbeak.  This gal is a bit of a mystery.  Why did she stay, when all the other Evening Grosbeaks appear to have left the area?  Is there a male somewhere?  Will there be a baby grosbeak or two?  Stay tuned!

4 comments:

Le trame della Galaverna said...

Beautiful stitch.
Absolutely wonderful houses.
I would like to buy one house for my garden so birds can eat inside.

Barb said...

The shamrock piece is looking great! I think our birds are looking for mates as they really are noisy in the morning!

Stewart M said...

Nice shots - I wish I could get some birds to nest in my garden. Does not seem to happen very much here.

That Grosbeak is a wonderful bird.

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

Maggee said...

I really like the big shamrock that is being stitched... the whole piece looks great so far! Sorry you didn't get to say goodbye to the fledglings. Apparently, wherever the nests were, I now have baby Chickadees, baby Tufted Titmice, baby Carolina Wrens and baby House Finches (tho they are much older) visit me every single day. I will share pictures of them on my birding blog soon... We had a robin and three eggs in a nest on top of the porch light up until three days ago... now there is nothing. No broken shells, no feathers, nothing. It is a mystery, but cannot blame them for moving to another location (hopefully) since we have been in and out the back door incessantly with many different activities of late. However, the Carolina Wrens have re-inhabited the nest under the porch stairs and I think I heard a little chirping this week. We shall see!