Sunday, July 27, 2008

Close Encounters of the Fowl Kind

feeding the babies

There's been a lot of fowl play around my place this weekend. This bird house is on the side of the carport. There is another one hanging from a branch in the back yard. Both have been taken over by wrens. This is a vast improvement over their choice last year of raising a family in my hanging flower basket. Mama bird would fly out abruptly and scare the crap out of me every time I watered the plant (very carefully avoiding the nest), even though I was expecting it (except for the first time, when I wasn't).

I haven't seen the babies, but I'd say they're getting bigger and hungrier. They sure do make a ruckus when mama bird flies in with some vittles. And I'm not the only one who has noticed the cheeping of the chicks. Zima has taken to hanging out on top of PDM's truck, parked in the carport adjacent to the birdhouse. I give it about 50-50 odds that one day she takes a flying leap for it. The odds would be higher if she wasn't 14 years old. She'll probably just sleep on the truck cab and dream about catching the birdies. If we were letting Moxy outside, she would be all over it. Moxy used to climb the tree and literally go out on a limb to mess with the other bird house earlier in the spring.

The neighborhood hawk attempted to land on a tree branch across the street this morning, but he broke it. For some reason, this made me laugh. Maybe he needs some avian Slim Fast. He quickly flew over to the power lines in front of my house. I got one photo of him before he flew away, but it didn't have enough magnification to see much of anything. Darn it!

Our hummingbirds have grown fiesty. For a while, they would visit the feeders one at a time. Very calm, no fighting, no competition. Now there are at least two going at it. It is much more entertaining. Aerial acrobatics galore, and twice the sighting potential. Now that they have goaded each other into being all territorial, they've grown much bolder about the non-bird "challengers", such as humans and cats, and even yellow jackets. I cracked up yesterday when Moxy and one of the hummers were having a "face off" through the kitchen window. Moxy was chittering and pawing the window and that little bird was holding his ground and getting all up in Moxy's face. Today the bird did the same thing to PDM through the window, mirroring his every move. I hope he doesn't get attacked by the killer hummingbird while he is outside grilling our steaks tonight.

And now the gang's all here! I just erased the bit I wrote about the barred owls being the only regulars who didn't show up for all the bird action this weekend. It is half an hour before sunset, and the owls just started calling to each other. I can't see them, but they sound like they're pretty close.

BAT UPDATE: PDM called around, and it turns out that bats are protected here until August 15, in order to let them complete their nesting season unmolested. So we can't do anything about them until then. We've decided to mount a bat box on the house close to the vents that they are currently using to get into the attic. That spot is ideal for bats, which is probably why we have them in the attic to begin with. They'll be able to continue ridding our yard of skeeters and we'll get our attic back.

15 comments:

wa11z said...

Territorial hummingbirds? Hmmm, sounds like a Stephen King novel.

Beth said...

I have crazy hummingbirds too. They fly around my head even. Hubby says I'm the hummingbird lady, but I saw this chick in a magazine who could feed them out of her hand!

Anyhow, great pics and posts as always.

Hey, and are you reading the Buffy comics? I have so many rants about them.

LL said...

No cat pictures? Am I at the right blog?

fermicat said...

wa11z - "killer hummingbirds" sounds scarier.

beth - how do you hand feed a hummingbird? Wouldn't that be messy? I'm reading the "season 8" Buffy comics. I think they are OK. Not as much fun as the TV show in this medium. Why do you have rants about them?

LL - I can fix that if you want.

Jeni said...

I don't really have a problem with protecting some species from "overkill" I suppose you could call it, but when they invade my personal space -i.e., my house, inside -then I'd consider them to be fair game unless they leave of their own volition. Pennsylvania has a law that says you can't kill a rattlesnake too but be damned if I'd let one live if it ventured into my yard! Same principle gets applied thusly to bats in my book.

Dianne said...

My goodness it is Animal Kingdom!

I laughed about the fat hawk breaking the branch :) Poor guy

I love how you live so calmly and peacefully with all the creatures around you. It's wonderful!

dr sardonicus said...

That reminds me, the bird feeders are another thing that have been neglected in the past month. You miss the little things the most...

fermicat said...

jeni - I don't mind the bats, but would rather not have my attic fill up with bat guano.

dianne - I felt a little mean laughing at the hawk. I'm glad I am not the only one who finds that funny.

dr s - I am not surprised to hear that. The little things add together to make some very special memories.

Minnesotablue said...

Good pictures as always.

fermicat said...

minnesota - thanks. I desaturated the colors on this one, and wondered if I made it look too dowdy in the process.

BC said...

I really should post up some pictures of the critters from the camp. Oh and there was a baby bear there the other day. He came down the trail to drink but he tumbled and fell into the water. Momma (at the top of the hill) wasnt too pleased. LOL

tiff said...

HOW do you keep ants out of the hummingbirds feeders?

And no, that's not the beginning of a joke. I really want to know!

fermicat said...

BC - yes! pictures!

tiff - the one in the front is hanging from the eaves and has never had an ant on it. Once in a while, I have to squirt the one in the back off to get rid of a few ants. It hangs from a shepherd's hook. If it becomes more frequent, I would coat the stem with some Vaseline.

Kathleen said...

I was going to ask for catblogging tomorrow, but then realised tomorrow is Friday. The week flies by when you get to watch your friends being walked out of the building on a daily basis.

fermicat said...

kat - I know that sucks because I have (a)survived several layoffs, and (b)been laid off in my former career. I'll see what I can do about catblogging tomorrow. I am off work, so should have time to pick out something good.