Mockingbird Daycare

In the front of my house, I have two dwarf crepe myrtle trees and one of them is home to a family of mockingbirds.

This is the third out of the last four years (that I know about) where they've made their nest in this tree. There are a lot of mockingbirds around the neighborhood, and I really didn't think too much about these until the pandemic.

While I was working from home (Paradise!!!), I heard some squeaking. I'm like what the heck is that? So I go and look and there's this bird on the porch in front of my home office window.

This didn't look like a baby. It was the size of a full-sized bird. It wasn't until a parent flew in to feed it that I realize it was a fledgling. Old enough to fly, not old enough to feed itself yet.

It's become a real pleasure to watch the birds raise their chick. Wikipedia says the clutch is three to five eggs, but I've only seen/heard one chick in all the years they've nested here. Maybe this couple only lays one egg?

Last year, my birds didn't nest in the tree and it surprised me how disappointed I was. This year they're back, and I geeked out in sheer bliss at their return. The baby fledged about 2-3 weeks ago, or so. It could be longer because I'm not home to watch them (like I should be!).

I had the coolest encounter two weeks ago. I was in the house, at the kitchen table, and I heard the squeaking. I turn to look and the baby is on the back patio! As I was watching, one of the parents flew in, fed it a bug. The baby ate it, started squeaking again, and the parent flew off to find more food. I watched for a while longer, but didn't see another feeding . Of course, the bird didn't hang around too long out there.

Wikipedia says the bird becomes independent after about 10-15 days, but again, that hasn't been my experience watching them. Could I have weirdo mockingbirds? I'm sure I have the correct bird because the tail is so long, the male and female are the same color, and they're both gray, which matches the description of the bird. The pictures match as well.

I've never been into birds, but watching this couple nest in my tree has been a delight and I hope they return next year, too.

Missing My Birds

There are so many awesome things about working from home. In fact, everything about working from home is awesome, but one of the things I really started to enjoy was my birds.

I call them my birds because for two years running, they've nested in the tree near my office windows. And when I got to work from home every day, I was able to watch as the baby fledged from the nest and learned to feed itself.

It was better than checking out a bird cam online. The parents, both took care of the baby--at least from what I could see--and that chick needed their help. It kept screeching. I'm like, little guy, if you keep screaming like that, the predators are going to find you!

But mom or dad would fly in with food for the baby, feed it, and then it would be quiet for at least a little while.

Now that the trees are starting to bud, I'm watching for my bird couple to show up and nest in the tree again. I'm sad to work in the office for so many reasons, but missing out on year three of nesting season is definitely on the list.

Baby Bird

In June, while I was working hard to get my manuscript ready to send to my editor, there was this scratchy squeaking noise outside my office window. It was relentless, too. It sounded like an injured animal, but multiple checks outside revealed nothing.

It was evening before I spotted the culprit. A mockingbird chick.

This "baby" was as big as its parents and fatter than both of them. In fact, they looked thin, probably from all the running they were doing to feed their chick. All three of them were standing together on the grass in front of my office window, but a parent would fly off, catch food, and come back to give it to the baby who was screeching nonstop.

The picture with this blog post is one I purchased because I couldn't get close enough to take a decent shot. And when I tried to catch one through my office window, the screen made it impossible to see the mockingbird family.

I found where their nest probably was located, too. In one of the crepe myrtle trees in my front yard. It was a surprising choice because it's a small tree and the nest would be low to the ground, but my subdivision was massively expanded in the past year or so, and maybe Mr. and Mrs. Mockingbird couldn't find a better location to build.

Anyway, that screechy squeak went from being annoying to making me run to the window to look for the baby. I'm so sad that they've moved on and baby has not only fledged, but learned to feed itself. Maybe they'll be back next year. I'll be watching.

Crazy Dang Bird

My house has this awesome covered patio in back, but it presents a few challenges since it's not screened in. Leaves are the big one. This year, though, I have a new problem. A crazy bird was trying to build a nest on top of one of the columns! There's literally like a half an inch of space available up there, if that, but he (or she) kept trying.

As soon as I noticed the mud going on the top, I'd scrap it off. I refused to even let it reach nest stage. I sprayed bleach up there, hoping the odor would deter it. No dice. So every day as soon as I got home from work, I'd go outside and scrap off the layer of mud.

And then my dad and I were going up to Minnesota to put his house on the market and I knew if we didn't do something, we'd return home to a full-blown nest. The mud all over the patio floor and ceiling and on the walls of the house were bad enough--I did not want to see what a nest full of little baby birds could do with their poop shoots. (If you watch the web cams of eagles nests, you know what I'm talking about here.)

Researching online didn't offer much in the way of solutions. The only idea someone had that seemed to work was fastening a mirror atop the pillar so the bird thought another bird was there. I didn't have any mirrors lying around the house and I really didn't have time to go shopping for one, so I gave it some thought and came up with my own idea.

You can see the mud that darn bird left all over the side of my house! (boo) But I'm not sure you can see what I did. You know when you order something and the store uses those air-filled pillows to keep things from knocking around? We used two of those and taped them on top the pillar with painters tape.

We caught the bird there a couple of times before we left and I expected to come back to find he had ripped down our makeshift barrier or that a storm had blown it away. That's not what happened. When we returned home, everything was still up there and there were no bird's nests to be found. Hurrah!

Eagle Cam

I'm not a big bird person, but I keep getting addicted to these various bird cams around. A couple of years ago, it was Condor Cam at the San Diego zoo. This year, it's been an eagle cam.

It started out innocently enough. One of the guys I work with told me about the eagle cam at Berry College in Rome, GA. It wasn't too long after that when the eaglet was born. This nest didn't have the second egg hatch. There's a note next to the cam that it hadn't been viable. But watching this one little chick (known lovingly as B3) grow up has been so cool.

When he was first born, he was this little pale gray fuzzball. Then his down grew in a little darker and now, at 5 weeks old (I think), he (or she) is starting to get real feathers in.

It didn't take long before I was hearing about other eagle cams, including one in Minnesota run by the Department of Natural Resources that had three eaglets hatch at the end of March/beginning of April. (MN DNR Eagle Cam)

So of course, being Minnesota, it starts snowing on April third when the chicks are all still so little. Mama sat over her babies for 2 days, just enduring the wind, snow, and cold while she kept he eaglets warm.

They're adorable! I watched her feed all three who were centered in the only part of the next not covered with snow. The oval that mama kept warm with her body. I'm scared for the littlest of the eaglets. He's so tiny and his two siblings are bigger and grabbing the food. I'm also worried about his reaction to the cold. He was born just like a day or so before the snow started.

The thing, though, that touched me is how the mother just endured everything for her chicks. She probably would have been less cold if she could move around, but she didn't. She took care of her babies first.

Birdbrained 2: TSTL

My trials with the robin who keeps attacking his reflection on my patio doors continues. To summarize, about 3 weeks ago or so, a robin who claims my yard as his territory, saw his reflection and attacked my windows, thinking he was defending against an interloper.

I did some research online to find out what was going on because I had no idea what this bird was doing. I've been in my house 5 years, and while it happened last year, after one incident that bird stopped. This year's robin is apparently not as smart as last year's. He doesn't give up and won't stop.

Online sources said if you can keep the bird away for a few days, he'll get busy with other stuff and forget the supposed territory invasion.

This sounded good. My drapes have a white backing and when they're closed, he doesn't see his reflection. After four days, I reopened my drapes--and he was back. :-/ I tried again. He just wouldn't stay away.

My mom has a reflective owl and I put it out on a shepherd's hook on my deck. This attracted attention from other, smarter birds like a blue jay and a crow. They both cruised by to check it out. :-) It seemed to work with idiot robin, too. At least I had no strikes, but it stormed overnight and it blew away. I found it, but haven't put it back up because it's been so windy and next time I might lose it for good. My mom wouldn't like that.

And the robin started attacking the window again.

Another suggestion I read online said that hawk decals will deter the strikes. At this point, it was worth a shot, so I spent $15 for the decal, put it up, and opened my drapes.

No strikes that evening. I began to feel cautiously optimistic.

The next morning, as I was putting my shoes on to go to work, I heard the bird attack the window again. He will not give up. He will not smarten up and realize it's his own reflection. Really, does this idiot robin attack his reflection when he sees it in a puddle? It's not as if the concept should be foreign to him.

The hawk decal might not have stopped the attacks, but it did do one thing--it changed the robin's strategy. Instead of striking the glass repeatedly, he now attacks twice (looking like a total spaz while he does it) and then takes off. Then I'll have some peace before he comes back to do another two strikes.

For weeks I've been worrying about this robin hurting itself, but I'm done with that. Not to sound heartless, but I've done everything suggested by the experts short of taping cardboard over my window to discourage him. If he kills himself hitting the window, well, survival of the fittest. This way we get some stupid out of the robin gene pool.

Birdbrained

For the past few days, a male robin has been attacking the glass doors on my patio. It isn't a case of not realizing there's glass there--my windows are clean, but not enough to confuse the bird. I've had my house for five years now and it didn't happen the first three years at all. Last year, it happened briefly, but once or twice and it was done. Not this year.

This year, the idiot robin has spent days attacking my window over and over. When I pull the drapes, it's mostly stopped the problem, although he did fly at my other windows that have curtains over them. The thing is that I like sunlight and would love to have my drapes open so I can enjoy the light. But I don't want the bird to kill itself attacking the windows either.

I've tried chasing him away. He flies to the tree in my backyard and then returns later to attack the window again.

On Thursday, it occurred to me what was different this year and last year versus the first three years I was in the house. I didn't hang my wind spinner on the deck! This should solve the problem, right? So I dug out the spinner, chased the idiot bird off, and hung my spinner.

An hour later, he was back...attacking the window.

Some research explained that robins are territorial and the male is defending his area. Against himself. Um, yeah. The article said that robins aren't stupid (Really? You couldn't prove it by me.) and that once the babies are born, he'll be too busy feeding them to worry about his reflection.

In the meantime, I've got a dodo bird attacking his image. :-( Territorial or not, you'd think that after thunking against glass about fifty times, the birdbrained robin would think, "dude, reflection." Nope. Not that bright no matter what the website said.

After I shooed him away yet again, he started singing his territorial, this is my land, song from all around my yard. And singing it loudly enough that I could hear him with all my windows closed. Guess he was really set on proving this is his land and no other male robin better even think about coming around.

You notice, though, that it isn't the female robin flinging herself pointlessly against the glass. She's probably busy building the nest while macho bird fights himself. ;-)

I'm going to try a fake owl to keep the bird away. I was hoping to have it Thursday night because my parents have one, only they can't find it. They're looking. If this doesn't do the trick, there was a suggestion online to try helium balloons. I can't believe this is actually happening over and over again.