Jim’s Blog

We are seeing more and more birds at our feeder. This is a definite sign that spring is almost here.

Cowbirds at the feeder

I looked out back this morning and was amazed at how many cowbirds there were at the feeder. I don’t know, but they may be migrating through the area.

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.

We only have had one cardinal at our feeder. He doesn’t come every day. Sometimes he comes with his mate. Today he was here alone.

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.
 

 
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.