tussling with a nesting ball.
I can't even tell you how close I came to removing said nesting ball from the garden. It was a freebie ~ compliments of my local Wild Birds Unlimited store ~ when I bought the Chickadee Nest box earlier this Spring.
There it's hung, in the garden, ever since, without an iota of interest from a single bird.
April, May & almost all of June ticked by with the nesting ball completely intact. Then, a few days ago, some action!
It was apparently just a matter of matching the "right" birds with the "right" time. Who knew?
The Goldfinches, with their later nesting season, are decidedly "into" the nesting ball!
They've been working vigorously at extracting the soft material so tightly bound in the ball. Pulling big beakfuls before flying off to put it to use.
Thank goodness I'm a procrastinator and hadn't pitched it!
It makes me happy to see it being used.
Curious side note about above two photos: There appears to be a nodule on this females underbelly??
Wonder what that could be?
Then, yesterday, a nest catastrophe involving a completely different bird ~ a 'Says' Phoebe.
Builder of the sloppiest nest ever, perched atop an old Barn Swallow nest, above my neighbors front door. Per my neighbor, every time she landed on the nest, the left side would disintegrate a little bit. Long story short, it deteriorated enough that two of the five eggs eventually rolled out & broke on the porch. But yesterday, calamity of all calamities ~ the babies in the remaining three eggs had fledged & only a day or so old, all three fell out prompting my neighbor to call me. Because I'm a bird whisperer or something ~ did you know?
Never one to shirk duty, I put on my gloves, got my ladder & carefully put the two that were still alive back in the nest. Then I duct taped a piece of floral foam (the only thing I could think of) along the left side to prevent a repeat disaster. I wish we'd done that sooner. I don't know if both babies are still alive or not but at least one is as I've seen the female flying to the nest throughout the day.
I can't help but worry those tiny fledglings have some internal damage falling from door height onto concrete tho??? Why do I get so invested in these things? Darn nature is fraught with peril and I hate when it happens before my eyes. I will check back and update later. For now, "Mom" is feeding so I think that's a good sign?
Edited: June 29, 2018
A day after their traumatic fall, the baby Phoebe's are still alive.
Miracle of miracles. Maybe they're tougher than they look?
Now ~ whether they have injuries or not remains to be seen.
Fingers crossed.
Edited: July 6, 2018
The two baby 'Says' Phoebes appear to be thriving. It won't be long before they're ready to leave the nest & then we'll know for sure if they escaped unharmed from their early nest fall.
So far, so good, which is better than expected. Yay!
Edited: July 10, 2018
Both baby Phoebe's fledged today! Amazing testament to their resilience....
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