Jim’s Blog

I filled the bird feeders and cleaned and filled the bird bath this morning. I just looked out the window and saw more birds than ever out back – mostly vesper sparrows and cow birds. They seem to be enjoying themselves in the shade. It is already over 90 degrees F at 10 am. We’re heading for a record breaking high temperature today. The record for this date here is 105° F.

Today there are a lot of cowbirds at the feeders, more than I’ve ever seen at one time. You can also see a few vesper sparrows in the mix.

chigger on the edge of a dime

Original Entry:
In preparation for building a chicken coop in my daughter Lauren’s back yard, I wanted to find a way to get rid of the ever-present chiggers. I have been visiting this property for almost 50 years, and there has always been a problem with chiggers in that yard. I’ve read that chiggers are a real irritant to chickens, and can even kill young chickens. So, something has got to be done about the chigger problem before we build the chicken coop to protect the defenseless chickens. Our baby chicks arrive in 11 days.

In researching what can be done, I ran across an Eco-Friendly organic solution – a pesticide based on clove oil and thyme oil. I found it here on DoMyOwnPestControl.com. It’s not cheap, but hopefully it will do the job.

Follow Up:
After much research and debating on the best and Eco-Friendly way to get rid of the chiggers, we decided that Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth was the best way to go. I found it at Roach Feed and Seed here in Garland, TX. D.E. is good for eradicating all kinds of small bugs including roaches and silver fish. It is good around people and pets. You just don’t want to get it airborne and inhale it. It is really bad for your lungs. You can apply D.E. around your baseboards with a dry paint brush. People and pets can get diatomaceous earth in their mouths with no ill effects. In fact Food Grade D.E. can eliminate worms in pets and humans. We have mixed D.E. with the wood shavings in the chicken coop to keep the chiggers from getting to the chickens. Some precautions in using D.E. can be found Here and Here.
 

Since the brood of 3 fledglings flew off the first time we have not had barn swallows roosting overnight over our patio. But, everyday we have a pair of barn swallows checking out the nest. I don’t know if it’s the same pair every time or not. I just looked out the back door while one barn swallow was sitting on the ledge and another (likely the mate) was swooping around under the patio cover.
 

This little cottontail bunny just showed up. By his small size, he looks really young.

 
The last two days, we’ve had a barn swallow sitting in the nest for a few minutes at a time. Today, two birds switched in the nest. Then, a few minutes later, both were gone. It could be that the female of the pair is laying eggs again. If this is true, in a day or two one of them will be in the nest full time for the 14-day incubation period.
 

The young birds are still returning every evening. The parent birds are still feeding their offspring. In the two pics below, one fledgling appeared. Shortly thereafter a parent bird arrived (on left) and fed the little guy.

A lot of activity today around the feeder. It started with a squirrel eating seeds on the ground around the feeder. The squirrel disappeared before I got my camera to the window.

At dusk last night, the three fledglings returned and waited on a cable under the eaves while the parent birds came and fed them several times. I didn’t know that the parents would still be feeding the birds two days after they were flying around.
 
 
 

The fledglings have been back together a couple of times this morning sitting in the shade on the edge of the roof. The parent birds swooped down over their offspring as if to say, “Follow us we have something to teach you.” And off they flew following their parents.