So we have nesting chickadees in our front nesting box again this spring. We think it's the same pair, learned to tolerate us, because when we take down the box for a look, mama no longer flies away. So mostly what we've been seeing is the mama bird.
But a few days ago Sophie saw her fly out and went to look at the eggs. This is what she saw:
One of these does not look like the others! Although our web research tells us that cowbirds rarely lay an egg in a cavity nest, one sneaky cowbird did just that. The bigger darker egg is a cowbird egg, inside is a future cowbird nesting destined to hatch first and out compete it's chickadee "siblings". My first instinct was to lift the egg out with a spoon but they are native birds and they are protected so I let it stay.
Yesterday we saw this inside the box:
One hungry cowbird with it's mouth open waiting for lunch, sitting on top of a smaller chickadee. The cowbirds are not only first out of the egg, bigger, and stronger, but their mouths are red which guides the parents to feed it first.
We put out some
meal worms to make it easier for the birds to keep up with the needs of all the nestlings and are hoping for the best.
Bella had triplets--2 girls and a boy. I thought she had 5 or 6 in there she was so wide but I was wrong! They are all brown with white and black markings.
Charlotte had twins--a girl and a boy. Both white with beautiful markings. This is Calico. We missed both births, but obviously the mamas didn't need us.
So we have nesting chickadees in our front nesting box again this spring. We think it's the same pair, learned to tolerate us, because when we take down the box for a look, mama no longer flies away. So mostly what we've been seeing is the mama bird.
One of these does not look like the others! Although our web research tells us that cowbirds rarely lay an egg in a cavity nest, one sneaky cowbird did just that. The bigger darker egg is a cowbird egg, inside is a future cowbird nesting destined to hatch first and out compete it's chickadee "siblings". My first instinct was to lift the egg out with a spoon but they are native birds and they are protected so I let it stay.
One hungry cowbird with it's mouth open waiting for lunch, sitting on top of a smaller chickadee. The cowbirds are not only first out of the egg, bigger, and stronger, but their mouths are red which guides the parents to feed it first.
Inspired by the Yarn Harlot and just about everyone else in blogville who seems to have knitted a noro scarf in November, I ordered the yarn from WEBS and made one up for my mom.
My nephew Jonah is turning 4 (four!!) and the girls and I made him this pair of mittens from a felted sweater from Morgies (Good Will). I got the idea for combining it with the book The Mitten from Write Mama Write http://writemamawrite.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/mitten-tutorial.html
It's hard to see--but here are the kids at the barn in a costume parade. Sophie got the prize for funniest and Rebecca for best matched to her horse.
A fairy house pumpkin complete with fleece smoke carved by Miss Sophie.
Here we are all decked out to go to Salem. I've always wanted to go for Halloween. There were between 150,000 and 200,000 people, most dressed up. We saw some great costumes--I wish I had photos to show.
Eli asked at the door to go out and then peed outside! While Rebecca was out with him Sophie made this sign.
