Birds and Blooms

Sunflower seedling in our garden.

Willow tree Robin's nest. This is the third year in a row that they've nested in this spot.

Our Tree Swallow couple is back. They're setting up housekeeping in our garden bird house. We're hoping they have a successful nest this year!

Tree Swallow coming in for a landing.

Jackmanii Clematis

After a couple of setbacks, our Tree Swallow couple has finally been successful. I found the half of this tiny egg shell on the step under the birdhouse this morning. When mama flew out, I quickly peeked inside the house and saw three tiny babies. She would've had four, but something got to one of the eggs early on. Here's hoping that a few weeks from now the babies will fledge successfully.

Friday In My Backyard

If you look closely through the willow tree branches, you can see a Robin sitting on her nest. This is the first time we've had a bird nesting there. She is very protective and if you get within a few feet she will let you know that she isn't happy.

Daddy Tree Swallow keeps watch from his perch near our back porch. I moved our shepherd's hook closer to their bird house so they can better protect them selves from predators. We had a female Tree Swallow killed on her nest by a House Sparrow a few weeks back.

Mama Tree Swallow peeking out from her nest. She is incubating eggs right now and is spending more and more time inside the bird house. I peeked inside earlier today and there were 3 very small, white eggs. Tree Swallows are known to lay 4 to 7 eggs. They lay an egg a day. Hopefully we will have some babies here in the next week or two.

Our Tulip Poplar tree is in bloom. It bloomed a bit late this spring. I guess because of the unseasonably cool temps we had early on. They are so beautiful! It's the Tennessee state tree as well.

Our hedge row is teaming with honeysuckle. They smell so good! Brings back great childhood memories. I love this time of year and hope your Friday has been awesome! Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Break Time!

Mama tree swallow taking a break. The nest building has been going at a fevered pitch over the past three days. We took a peek in the box yesterday afternoon and we believe the nest is almost done. As for the house sparrow, so far so good. We haven't seen it around the birdhouse since the incident. The mama will be vulnerable to attack when she lays her eggs and spends more time on the nest. We're doing all we can to see that it doesn't happen again.

Bird Speak

I wish I understood bird speak. I would love to know what daddy tree swallow was saying to mama tree swallow :0) The nest building continued today although not as vigorous as yesterday. I guess the rain has slowed them down. Happy TGIF everyone!

Field of yellow. 

We have a couple of bluebirds and tree swallows nesting in birdhouses in our backyard. The bluebirds eggs have hatched and we've heard the babies peeping from inside the box. The tree swallows had been busy building their nest and we noticed that we hadn't seen the female around in a couple of days. I saw the male perched on our deck railing and he would fly up to the opening of the box then fly off. When Terry got home from work yesterday, I asked him to put the ladder up to the box and look inside. I had a bad feeling that something had happened to the female and unfortunately I was right. Terry found the female tree swallow dead on her nest inside the box. She had been attacked, pecked on top of the head by what we think was a house sparrow. I did some research and house sparrows are known to attack tree swallow and bluebird nests. Their MO is to trap one of the birds inside the birdhouse, then attack them and take the birdhouse for themselves. Terry told me he had noticed a sparrow coming out of the birdhouse over the weekend and I had noticed one around the box as well. It made us both sad as the nest had been built, but she hadn't laid any eggs yet. I cried as he removed the little nest. I'm sensitive that way. The male keeps coming around. I'm not sure if birds grieve or not, but he definitely knows that something has happened to his mate. I just hope our bluebird family will be alright. We didn't think we would have any tree swallows this year until today when I heard that familiar chattering sound. I looked out the back door and sure enough there were four flying around, checking out the box. As of late this afternoon a pair have been in and out of the box and we hope that they can successfully nest and brood their young. Nature can be cruel at times.

Our darker purple irises are starting to bloom now. We've really enjoyed them this spring. It's funny how the darker irises have a totally different scent than the lighter color irises.  Or maybe it's just me :0)

An update on our tree swallows. They are building a nest in the new birdhouse we put up on our porch post. The male and female have been flying in with nesting materials, plus there little bits of dried grass on the back porch.

Great news! Our tree swallow couple found the new bird house this afternoon. So far so good. No conflicts between the tree swallows and the bluebirds :0) I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

A bluebird couple have taken up residence in one of our back yard bird houses. We think their eggs have hatched because we found remnants of blue egg shells near their nest. Also, the male and female were bringing insects to the bird house. I've read that blue birds can lay up to three clutches of eggs in a season. We're still waiting for our tree swallows to start nesting in another box we put up. The bluebirds and tree swallows have been fighting for territory over the past month and we're hoping now that the bluebirds have babies to take care of, the tree swallows can start nesting. One good sign, I noticed the female tree swallow checking out the other bird house this afternoon. Stay tuned!

The battle of the bluebirds and tree swallows continues. The birdhouse in this picture is being occupied by a bluebird couple. They have already built a nest in the box, but try and tell that to the tree swallows. In this photo you can see a female tree swallow poking her head out of the bluebird's house. She was checking it out until the bluebirds came back and ran her off. Terry bought another birdhouse yesterday and we put it up yesterday afternoon. This morning I've already seen two or three tree swallows checking out the new box. Hopefully they will nest in the new box.  We're keeping our fingers crossed :0)

Mr. Bluebird

We have a bluebird couple building a nest in one of our birdhouses. It's the same birdhouse that our tree swallows have been nesting in for the past two years. The swallows and bluebirds have been fighting over who is going to occupy the birdhouse. For now, the bluebirds are winning. Terry went out at lunch today and bought another birdhouse. Hopefully the tree swallows will make their home in the new box and everyone can live happily ever after. Stay tuned!

Male bluebird. Gorgeous colors!

I took these pictures on June 14th of our tree swallows coming around for one last visit before migrating.

Hope to see them next year!

I looked out our back door this morning and found a deer in our backyard. I grabbed my camera with zoom lens and quietly made my way out to try and get a picture. He looked up at me and froze and I snapped this picture. I love deer, but really hope they don't discover our garden. Soon after I  got this picture, he headed off toward the hedge row and into the field.
 

I had another nice surprise this morning. After getting some pictures of the deer, I spotted our Tree Swallows who had come back for a visit. They left the bird house over two weeks ago. They sat on the garden arbor long enough for me to get several shots of them. All in all a great morning for photography :0)

Bye Bye Birdie!

Yesterday morning, our Tree Swallows left to migrate. Terry happened
to see the entire family happily flying around the birdhouse and arbor.
Here's how he described it to me in an email he sent me yesterday morning.

"Those were definitely the babies flying around my head when I went
out there. Kinda freaked me out – I was standing in front of the box
looking up and there wasn’t any sign of the babies. I couldn’t hear
them or see them. Then out of the blue 4-5 tree swallows swooped
down near the entrance of the box but didn’t try to feed the one left.
That’s when he started jabbering. They didn’t do it again but the
momma bird did come back and feed him a couple of times. It was
like they were all trying to get him to fly out and I guess it worked
sometime between when I left and when you got up"! Pretty cool I
got to witness it.










We will miss them, but are pretty sure they'll return to nest in our
box next spring for the 4th year in a row :0)

Hungry Babies!

Our ever hungry baby Tree Swallows.

Two of four baby Tree Swallows residing in our birdhouse this year.
Yes, that big one is a baby if you can believe it. We call him "Hoss"
after the character from the 1960's tv show, Bonanza. The three other
babies are much smaller. Hoss is always hogging the food and is always
fighting to be the first at the opening of the birdhouse. So much so, that
one of the smaller babies got pushed out of the birdhouse today.
Luckily I found "Little Joe" in the driveway. Terry got the ladder, I got
Little Joe and returned him safely to the nest. I'm glad I found him
before our cats did.


The three smaller babies. We've had so much fun today watching them
jockeying for position at the opening of the birdhouse. Mama and
Daddy have been busy all day feeding them.


Daddy Tree Swallow taking a short break on top of the arbor.
If if he thinks you're gettting too close to the nest, he'll swoop
down at you. He's attacked our cat, Libby, a couple of times.

Daddy Tree Swallow. I thought there were only two babies in the nest,
but it turns out there are three :0) More pics to come.

Our baby Tree Swallows have hatched. As far as I can tell there are
two, but could be more. I've only seen these two. They are keeping
mom and dad very busy. It's so much fun watching both parents
feeding their babies :0)


Too cute!


In the upper right hand corner of this picture you can see an ant on
the bird box. Mom and dad grab those and feed them to the babies.
Free food!

They're Baaaaaaaaack!

I was filling our bird feeder with seed this morning when I heard a
familiar chattering. I knew immediately it was our Tree Swallows
coming back to nest in our back yard. This will be the 3rd year in
a row that they've come to nest in the bird house on our garden arbor.
The sight of them really made my day :0)

I cleaned out the birdhouse that our Tree Swallows had nested
in this year. This is what their nest looked like. Not much to it.
Tree Swallows use lots of feathers in their nest to keep their
babies warm.


It's funny how the nest takes the shape of the birdhouse :0)