15 June 2012 - Bees, Babies and Busy Birds

Wish you could be here enjoying the back yard with us. It is so busy and so noisy you hardly know where to look first. Most people think of June and brides as a unit, but in my experience it is June and babies, and boy, do we ever have babies! It is hard to know where to sit to see the best show--something is happening in every tree on all sides of the house.

Want the list? First we have baby red squirrels. I have caught two of the babies (or the same one twice) so far, but they are still small enough they can flatten their little bodies and slide right out of the cage. 

Had one in the cage on the balcony this morning. Here you can see the boys drooling over it. I was going to carry it through the house to the garage. My hand was on the door knob and I felt the weight in the cage shift. I looked down saw an empty cage and the little brat high-tailing it down the balcony. When it got to the end it turned around and chewed me out. I didn't even have to speak squirrel to know what it was saying. Can't tell you how grateful I am that this did not happen in the house (here kitty kitty) or worse yet in the car. News at Eleven: Woman drives off road while being attacked by a crazed red squirrel.

As my mind wraps itself around those possibilities and their outcomes...whew! Glad it didn't happen inside, although the cats would have had a great time. Not even ten minutes later the little beggar was eating seeds like nothing had ever happened.

Continuing with the rodents: baby bunnies. Last night momma bunny was in the middle of the lawn while at least two babies ran in and out of the myrtle in some sort of chase game.  One would run around the yard, circle mom then dive back into the myrtle.

At that point a second bunny would come hurtling out of the myrtle, circle around mom and again dive back into the myrtle. Bunny games. Funny stuff. It would be more fun it we weren't trying to keep them out of the vegetable patch. I am definitely feeling like Farmer MacGregor these days. But even so, they are so cute, and tiny enough you could hold one in the palm of your hand.

Baby birds. We seem to have a monopoly in the baby bird department. Between keeping seeds out all year and making sure we have a couple sources of water, the yard is full of birds and they are bringing the kids. The babes are as big as the parents, so it takes a minute to realize which one is being fed. 

The magpies are the clowns of the bird world: big, bold and so very noisy. Their children are even noisier, if that is possible, except there calls tend toward the very pathethic "feed me, feed me now." The parents are trying to teach these kids how to find their own food, and all the kids want is to be fed. Very amusing! 

What is interesting about the magpies is how they have learned to navigate the suet feeders. They started out by hanging out underneath the feeders eating the droppings from other clinging birds. Over the winter they learned to jump up and do a fluttering helicopter hover while grabbing a mouthful. Now with the added pressure of hungry babies, they have learned how to land on the feeder and grab a huge mouthful before falling off.  Such smart birds!

From the biggest to the smallest: the hummingbirds. I have no idea how many hummingbird babies we have other than lots! With three feeders in constant use, it is hard to keep up. While the males patrol the feeders and chase off interlopers, they do let the babies feed. Last year we had a hummingbird nest on a rope hanging under the balcony. Their nests are little works of art made out of spiderwebs and lichens. Didn't find any nests this year. Our flock is consuming 10 cups of nectar every four to five days so I can only guess there are many. 

Grosbeaks. We were thrilled to have a pair show up at our feeder this spring, and even more so now they have showed the babies this food source. The grosbeak song is gorgeous, and hearing that melodious string of notes coming from high perches around the yard is a joy. The babies calls are more of a complaint than a song.

Downy woodpecker. We had a cute couple busy on the feeder all winter, and now they are here showing their three kids the wonders of suet. This baby was on a nearby branch being fed by dad who was making many trips back and forth. Baby finally landed (yes, handing upside down counts as landing) on the suet and figured it out.  

 The babies are not great fliers and they land awkwardly, almost looking like little bats with their wings spread for balance.  They are not fearful of people and spent quite some time working over the suet feeder and making short flights around us while we watched. 

The baby below isn't even phased by my guard crow, and is checking out his toes.

I recently learned something interesting about Downies.  Males have sharper stronger beaks and they tap holes in the tree bark. The females have shorter beaks, so they pry the bark up rather than make holes. Makes it easier to recognize  who you are looking at when you understand the behavior. 

Bluejays. Their kids are now eating on their own, but are still following the parents, hoping for a meal they don't have to work to get. Blue jay babies aren't as insistent about food as most babies, their call is more like a soft whine. 

The Robins still have their babies in the nests, but they are so busy hauling huge beak-loads of worms out of our lawn that I expect to see those babies any day now, and I'm sure they will be too fat to fly. It is always entertaining to watch the parents listen for worms then struggle to pull them out of the ground.

Chickadee babies are fully fledged and are eating on their own, no longer following their parents. 

House finch babies are numerous, as always. I'm surprised they haven't taken over the world. Occasionally you find an enterprising baby. The parents have taught all the kids to eat from the sunflower feeder, but this venturesome child has discovered it is easier to sit under the feeder and gobble up the droppings from above than join the horde in pulling seeds out of the screen. Smart.  

The starlings are now into the juvenile stage, no longer needing  their parents for food and they are starting to flock up with other starlings of their age. Starling kids are bullies. They follow the parents and peck them on the back--hurry up, feed me! Feed me now! No plaintive little cries but loud demands and hard pecks.

What's missing here?  The peregrines. Finally figured out where their nest is, across the street on the mountain, but haven't seen any babies yet. They should have fledged by now, but I haven't seen them, so who knows.  

Can't have birds without bees.  What is tickling me about the bees is the black pollen from the oriental poppies. Normally when you watch honey bees, their legs are covered with bright yellow or orange balls of pollen. The bees that are working the poppies have big black pollen packs. Not something you normally see.