Sunday, September 13, 2009

All God's Creatures Sunday

I've made a decision to take out all of the birds nests from around the house. There's one in the bird house in this picture, one in the roll-up shade,


on top of the light fixture on the front porch, and in so many of the open spaces on the ends of our tile roof.

I have loved watching the moms & dads feeding and raising their babies all summer for the last 5 years. This year was not a successful year for baby birds around my house, and what ended up happening was that the nests are all empty (early) and the House Finches seemed to have gone away. :(

Even last winter, some of the nests were being used at night by either the parent or the baby. But they're just gone now.

Some of the nests in the roof tile have never been too great because when the baby starts moving around, they'll fall out to the ground. I put rocks at the end of the space and that worked one year. But I'm just feeling like perhaps the nests need to be rebuilt from scratch and maybe be in better shape to hold them.

Anyway, that's what I'm doing this afternoon. Makes me a little sad, but maybe they'll be stronger next year.

9 comments:

Dawn said...

I've only recently become a bird watcher as there are so many around this home.

Last year one mom and dad made a nest high above our driveway on some sort of box on the power lines near the pole. I think it was for the neighbors' cable hook-ups. No shelter from weather or predators. I decided it must have been their first nest. Everything seemed fine until I came home to find one hanging upside down with a string from the nest around it's foot. It died before anyone could get to it. I was heart broken.

I guess it doesn't come as natually to them as I would have thought. Hope they do better at your house next spring.

Dawn

Anonymous said...

how sad,, but just keep thinking of next yr and your helping:) beautiful pics as always

Heather said...

Oh, those little buggers. I do hope that they'll find more strength in the building of their nests next year.

A Scattering said...

It must have been "nest cleaning day" as I was doing the same thing. This is the second year that we've had a pair of nesting mourning doves at our house. They kicked the last brood out last weekend (4 broods, 8 chicks this year)so I cleaned up their nesting spot above our front door today. Let's look forward to next year, shall we? And here's a bit of coincidence - the security identification word I've been give for this comment is "nestyl" - go figure!!

septembermom said...

We used to have a robin's nest every spring. Now we miss it. I would love to have some nesting by me:)

Dan Felstead said...

Shabbygirl..you always come up with some of the neatest bird pictures...they are never you normal run of the mill bird shot...always something special.

Dan

Graham Edwards said...

About three or four years ago I took a picture of 78 Sparrows sitting on my fence waiting for me to feed them. A lot of sparrows nest under the eaves of my house under the tiles where they are safe and dry but don't bother me. The next year they were gone. I had almost no sparrows at all. Then a few returned. Last year my main visitors to the bird table were Greenfinches. This year the sparrows have returned in droves and have had many broods all through the summer. But I've hardly seen a Greenfinch.

The same goes for other birds in the garden only to a lesser extent and I'm not able to gauge it so easily because they don't feed from the bird feeders.

So, hopefully, you birds will be back again.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that is sad. But, I bet you are doing the right thing, and the bird will come back with new and better blueprints.

:)

Unknown said...

I sure hope they come back. I love birds I have many feeders out for them all year round. Great pictures.

Flora & Fauna

Books I have known & loved

  • Life of Pi
  • A Hundred Years of Solitude
  • Kite Runner
  • The Way the Crow Flies
  • Fall on Your Knees
  • Poisonwood Bible
  • East of Eden
  • Shantaram
  • I Know This Much is True

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