Nesting Suprise

This season is all about nesting as far as I am concerned, and yet I was surprised yesterday while at the Salem Audubon Reserve when some of the other volunteers reported a Bushtit nest. I was taken to the location at this drooping Indian Plum shrub where we observed the pair busily constructing a nest. I took some photos, which didn’t turn out that good when looked at closely on the computer, and had to make a second trip in the afternoon to get this photo with a Bushtit working with a long piece of material at the nest.  They make a very interesting, sock-shaped hanging nest of up to twelve inches in length with an opening at the top. These are very small birds, only about four inches in length from beak to end of tail. The question came up, which I had to research to find the answer, how small are the eggs? The average size is 13.7 x 10.1 mm, which strikes me as enormous given the size of the bird.   I think only some hummingbirds have smaller eggs. They normally produce 5-7 eggs.  I was most surprised because I have only seen Bushtits on three occasions on the 24 observation lists I’ve made at the Reserve since the first of the year. This is the first known nest at the Reserve this season that I’m aware of, and unfortunately not by a species that would take advantage of the ten artificial cavities that we have constructed.

Patio Birding

We were sitting out on our patio enjoying our lunch today when Jeanette noticed this male Evening Grosbeak in our neighbor’s tree. Along with it were several bright yellow American Goldfinches. When they flew off a dominating male Rufus Hummingbird took the position, and soon he left and a Chipping Sparrow showed up.  I started making a list and by the time lunch was over we had fifteen different species of birds.  The amazing part is that two of these birds were FOY (First of the Year) for Polk County for me, the Evening Grosbeak and the Chipping Sparrow.  Many days we travel to the far reaches of the county and walk for hours tallying birds without a single new species.  But to sit in the comfort of your own backyard and see a good number of interesting birds---that’s the true luxury!io

Buster's Anniversary Hike

I picked Willamette Mission State Park as our birding destination today.  We parked at the Mission Lake Boat Ramp, which we recalled was where we took Buster for his very first opportunity to hike.  When I got home this afternoon I researched in Cascade Ramblings to find when that took place.  Turned out to be eight years ago on March 3, 2006.  This was before the Cascade Ramblings Blog, back in the days when all the reporting took place in the Trip Journal.  You can read the entry here. There was quite a contrast in these two hikes.  On his first trip it took a lot of encouragement to get him to take a few wobbly steps along the trail, and you can see in the photo above his furrowed brow indicating his concern over this strange situation.  By contrast today he was the first one out of the car and off exploring smells before we could even get our boots on. Hiking is now his favorite pastime. 

Osprey Time

It’s that time of year when the Osprey have returned to Oregon and we get to watch their fishing and nesting activities. While birding at Wallace Marine Park in West Salem yesterday afternoon we noticed an Osprey on the nest at the ball field crying away.  The next thing that we noticed was a second bird in the air, and it had a fish in its talons.  It flew to the nest for a few seconds and then flew away with the fish. Our first thought was that it was the male bringing a fish to his mate on the nest. Did she reject his offering? The thing that nagged at us was that both Jeanette and I thought we could see the “necklace” on the bird with the fish indicating it would be a female. It’s too early in the year for the bird on the nest to have been a juvenile, and I think it’s way too big of a stretch of the imagination to think that an adult male would be just sitting there asking to be fed. :)

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday afternoon while enjoying a pleasant walk through the Salem Riverfront Park we stopped to observe a busy pair of Black-capped Chickadees.  We quickly realized that the chickadees were focused on a hole in a tree. As we continued to watch we began to understand what was going on, they were cleaning out a nest site. A bird that we eventually decided was the female would disappear into the cavity for a few seconds and then reappear with a mouth full of debris. You can see her in the above photo and see her mouth-full, and notice how her feathers are all akimbo. Now, not to read too much into these behaviors, the other bird which we concluded was the male, seemed unable to take on any responsibility in the cleaning chores, and took on the role of an observer. He is shown in the lower photo, notice he has not a feather out of place as he watches at the edge of the opening, and if you look closely you can see just the end of her tail feathers sticking out of the door way as she fiercely attacks all the dust and dirt.

 

Nesting Competetion

Here is a cute photo --- but of a bad bird, a European Starling; bad in the sense that it robs native species of nesting opportunities. We have a number of native species like chickadees, nuthatches, swallows, wrens, bluebirds, and woodpeckers, that all depend on tree cavities for nesting, and in our crowded sterile urban environments, old snags with good cavity opportunities are fewer all the time. Years ago in 1890-01, a group of citizens of New York thought that it would be a swell idea to have the birds of Shakespeare in Central Park, so was introduced the European Starling.  In the ensuing years they have spread all across the United States, became a plague to farmers, a nuisance in urban areas, and a major competitor to native birds. I took this photo yesterday while birding at Orchard Heights City Park in West Salem, and of the sixteen species we saw, this one, the European Startling I’m sorry to say was the most numerous.     

Right On Time!

April is considered the month that birds start nesting, and today April 1^st, we had two prospective renters show up right on time.  I was having lunch when I noticed a pair of Black-capped Chickadees show up in our back yard, and just as I hoped, one went and inspected one of our bird houses.  I ran and got my camera and was lucky enough to get a photo.  I sat back down to proceed to finish my lunch and suddenly a pair of Tree Swallows swooped though.  After several passed they too inspected the bird house, and I got a second photo. I've had two houses up for a couple of weeks now, and have had interest from the House Sparrows, but the entrance hole by design is too small to allow them to enter.  It's going to be an interesting time seeing who, if anyone, moves in first.