Despite the fact that we are forecast to receive 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow night-with 5-9 forecast for Northern parts of the state, the birds have been busy building nests.
The creepers I mentioned in a previous post must have picked a nest site. One of them was picking cedar strings off a piece of slab in the backyard and was so focused on the task at hand that I watched for some minutes from a distance of just a few feet.
Ditto with the black capped chickadees-I had a close up observation of one patiently picking Moonie's fiber off the fence-I couldn't tell if it was after the coarser guard hair or soft undercoat remnants that Moo had wound around the fence while rubbing on it to relieve the itching of shedding.
I have been pretty slack about combing my goats this year- I have at least six large garbage bags full of fiber that needs to be processed and don't see that happening in the near future, so this year is for the birds.
The Phoebes, a type of flycatcher, are back building nest under the eaves. They build a fresh one each year, made of moss and mud. The robin has decided to use the fir by the deck again, despite the giant maple limb dangling straight down from about thirty feet. The limb let go about a month ago and got hung up and since I couldn't pull it free, it will have to stay until fall when the robins migrate.
The limb is actually compressing the fir branches at the nest site even closer together so hopefully the hawk doesn't try to get the nestlings again.
The wayward squirrel nestling is still hanging in there. I had put some sunflower seed on the deck-even though the site on raising squirrels said not to feed them sunflower seed or corn. I figured Momma had been feeding on my offerings and the nestling had access to other things, like the red maple buds which had fallen on the deck which Willow had seen it nibbling.
Today we saw the young squirrel had found the squirrel feeder which I had relocated closer to that side of the house. It tried to climb the young pine the feeder was hanging on , and had some difficulty with slippage, and at one point retreated back under the house, which must have turned into its substitute nest site.
It's quite nice to hear all the seasonal birds -the yak yak of the nuthatches, the robins, goldfinch, and even a pair of purple finch. I have not seen any grosbeaks in years- I used to get rather large flocks of evening grosbeaks in the winter and rose breasted in the summer less then ten miles form here as the bird flies.
It could be habitat, and I am glad that the current birds population can take advantage of the goat fiber, the spilled straw and various dried grasses and herbaceous plant stalks that are readily available in my yard, as well as the moss and mud from the springlet that runs down the drive.
I have a cold frame going this year, and glad for it. All next week we have night lows at freezing, very bizarre for us even though our last frost date is the end of May. I usually pull off getting most of the garden planted by now.
The creepers I mentioned in a previous post must have picked a nest site. One of them was picking cedar strings off a piece of slab in the backyard and was so focused on the task at hand that I watched for some minutes from a distance of just a few feet.
Ditto with the black capped chickadees-I had a close up observation of one patiently picking Moonie's fiber off the fence-I couldn't tell if it was after the coarser guard hair or soft undercoat remnants that Moo had wound around the fence while rubbing on it to relieve the itching of shedding.
I have been pretty slack about combing my goats this year- I have at least six large garbage bags full of fiber that needs to be processed and don't see that happening in the near future, so this year is for the birds.
The Phoebes, a type of flycatcher, are back building nest under the eaves. They build a fresh one each year, made of moss and mud. The robin has decided to use the fir by the deck again, despite the giant maple limb dangling straight down from about thirty feet. The limb let go about a month ago and got hung up and since I couldn't pull it free, it will have to stay until fall when the robins migrate.
The limb is actually compressing the fir branches at the nest site even closer together so hopefully the hawk doesn't try to get the nestlings again.
The wayward squirrel nestling is still hanging in there. I had put some sunflower seed on the deck-even though the site on raising squirrels said not to feed them sunflower seed or corn. I figured Momma had been feeding on my offerings and the nestling had access to other things, like the red maple buds which had fallen on the deck which Willow had seen it nibbling.
Today we saw the young squirrel had found the squirrel feeder which I had relocated closer to that side of the house. It tried to climb the young pine the feeder was hanging on , and had some difficulty with slippage, and at one point retreated back under the house, which must have turned into its substitute nest site.
It's quite nice to hear all the seasonal birds -the yak yak of the nuthatches, the robins, goldfinch, and even a pair of purple finch. I have not seen any grosbeaks in years- I used to get rather large flocks of evening grosbeaks in the winter and rose breasted in the summer less then ten miles form here as the bird flies.
It could be habitat, and I am glad that the current birds population can take advantage of the goat fiber, the spilled straw and various dried grasses and herbaceous plant stalks that are readily available in my yard, as well as the moss and mud from the springlet that runs down the drive.
I have a cold frame going this year, and glad for it. All next week we have night lows at freezing, very bizarre for us even though our last frost date is the end of May. I usually pull off getting most of the garden planted by now.
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