Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Hummingbirds are out of breath

The hummingbirds arrived today.. YEAH~! This morning I had one and just before dark I had two.. Hopefully more will come tomorrow and then drop their suitcases in my yard and stay all summer. After that big long flight they looked like they were panting. Ha Ha.. They took a lot of drinks from the two feeders that I have out for them. They were in competition with the Baltimore Orioles, They arrived today and they were hungry too. I made extra food for the feeders tonight. Don't want to run out of food with all this excitement in the yard. The Orioles have two bowls of grape jelly so they won't go hungry.
The red-bellied woodpecker has a mate and they are nesting in the tree right outside the house in the big tree by the driveway. That is where I have 5 feeders. They have been chowing down on the black oil sunflowers and the grape jelly. Didn't know woodpeckers had sweet beaks. They are fun to watch.
Put out a pile of small sticks for the wren.. In one hour they were gone and he was singing in the tree. Tomorrow I'll help him out and gather some more sticks for him.. Oh how much fun I'm having. Thank you God~!~! For the birds. What a blessing it is to sit in the yard and watch all this activity. The only thing missing is my sister Lynn and my brothers Dave and
Leroy.. What a magic moment that would be if they were here~!

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Rhubarb Crisp

Today I made Rhubarb Crisp.. It was soooo good. I took 1/2 of it to the neighbors.. The Starry's. They were so delighted that I brought them dessert. Kim said she bought some vanilla ice cream and they would have that with the Rhubarb.
Conner their son, who is 8 showed me a baby rabbit he found. He said that he was going to take it back to it's nest.. There are 4 other babies there too. They were so sweet. I held it for a minute and it was so little. Isn't Spring just wonderful.. Lots of babies to hold.
Today I put up the hammock out by the Olive Tree. I have a finch feeder hanging really close and it was fun to watch the goldfinches come to feed. They are just about 5 feet from the hammock. My friend Sharlyn called me today and said "Get Ready" the Balitimore Orioles are here. So I put out the grape jelly for them. . The red bellied woodpecker loves the grape jelly. Hope he shares with the orioles.

Precious babies

Today while I was mowing the grass down to the creek, I passed by the bluebird nesting boxes. In one was a sparrow and she had 4 babies. They were nestled in a nest with lots of grass, feathers from a pheasant, cardinal,bluejay, a small piece of plastic.It also had rabbit fur. The baby birds were so pink, no feathers. They were bald all over. I picked one up and held it softly in my hand.. It was moving around and opening it's mouth. Mother sparrow was having a fit,, I told her to cool it~! You know it's a myth that if you hold baby birds, the mother will smell your scent and the mother will abandon the baby.. Not true.. Birds can't smell. I carefully put the baby bird back into it's nest, closed the door of the box and then I drove the lawn tractor ahead. I stopped the mower and just sat and watched,, Mother Sparrow was back in the box and checking out her babies.. Pretty soon Father Sparrow brought some bugs for his kids and everyone was happy again. There's just something about food, it helps to soothe the nerves. Bugs is Comfort Food for them. I'll take some Chocolate please...no bugs~!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Nesting Materials and Noisy Wrens

Received my new all time favorite "Birders World" magazine. There was article about nesting materials. It said that if we place twigs in small piles around the yard the Male House Wren will gather it up as he has a big job. He just doesn't build one nest he builds lots of nests for his sweatheart. When she comes to meet him, she inspects his nests and OUCH~! She chooses the nest site that she likes and then she tears the nest apart that he maticulousy built just for her and the off spring. She throws all the twigs out of the nest and rebuilds it herself. That is a lot of work. When she is done they are both happy. He sits in a near by branch and sings his song of series of bubbling liquid trills. If you have a nest nearby your house forget about sleeping in ~in the morning.. This little guy will wake you up at 4:30 and keep singing until you say "Uncle" and you get up and make coffee and go outside and hear the musical spring songs of all the birds. What a joy~!~! I love spring and all that God has to offer us in all the things that he made for us to enjoy.