Off to work…
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This spring’s Nests-We-Know-About:
* 2 chickadee families in bird houses
* 2 nuthatch families in tree cavities
* 1 robin nesting under an eave
* 1 phoebe nesting on the house (predated)
And every year I discover new nests in the fall that I completely missed all spring. The birds raise their babies right under my nose and I am none the wiser. It’s wonderful. Keep your secrets little birds.
I love glimpsing the work that goes into nest building. The flights to and from the mud after a good rain. Snatching fur from the stash we leave out in a suet cage. Twigs and needles and caverns in trees. As many kinds of nests as there are kinds of birds.
I have a book — “The Birder’s Handbook” by Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye — that dives into the details of birds’ domestic lives. And descriptions of all the different kinds of nests reads like lines of poetry:
“Bed of soft bark shreds, hair…
Hammocklike cup beneath loose bark, of moss…
Often near or over stream; of bud scales, lichen on exterior, bound with spider’s silk…
Also in cave or hollow stump…
Lined with fine dark rootlets…
Lined with plant down, insect cocoons,
Concealed at base of tree, a deep hollow, with preened feathers.”
(Nests of White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Turkey Vulture, Wood Thrush, Black-capped Chickadee, Ruffed Grouse respectively)
Have a good Friday folks
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: I did not make the log birdhouse in the photo. I picked it up one day a couple of years ago while biking to Knuckle Down Farm for my veggies. There is a roadside stand of them on Rosebush Rd just west of Glen Ross. As if you needed another reason to visit Knuckle Down. 🙂
