overdue update

Life has been so busy around here with soccer ending and swimteam starting, that I haven't been able to catch up on our long overdue updates. We have had many wonderful things happen and have learned so much more than we set out to learn. We have also had some sad things happen, as does with nature.

First, we still have many visitors to our feeding center. One day Brian and I were out enjoying the day and we noticed a bright orange bird in a tree in our back yard. It never came to eat, but it hung around for quite a while. We finally figured out that it was a Baltimore Oriole. We were very excited!!! The next day, we had an Indigo Bunting come to eat. We were amazed at how blue it was. We have enjoyed all these colorful creatures in our back yard.

We were very excited to realize that we have 3 nests in our yard. The swallows are back and we believe the eggs have finally been laid, because someone is hanging out in that nest all the time now. We have a mockingbird who built a nest in our front yard. Funny thing, the mockinbirds never come to eat. I guess they just eat insects. Lastly, our sparrows built a beautiful nest, right in our backyard, in our bottle brush tree. We were a little concerned because there are often cats hanging out under that tree. On Wednesday we noticed the nest, on Thursday there were eggs and on Friday we had a HUGE storm with lots of wind. We were worried about the birds and when we checked on them noticed they had found shelter on our rain gutters, right next to their nest. The next day we checked on them and noticed 3 babies!! We watched them grow and checked on them daily. We used our plastic picnic table to stand on so that we could see inside the nest. Well, we left the table too close to the nest and the cats were able to reach the nest. We were all so sad to lose our babies and have learned an important lesson about interefering with nature.

If you build it, they will come.

This is an entry that the girls wrote. These are facts that they have learned about the birds in our backyard. (or some they made up) We have also been studying birds that we haven't seen in our backyard like owls, pigeons, ducks, hawks, egrets, penguins, eagles and swans. We will post more about those birds later. By the way, our swallows are back this year and as we read about the swallows of San Juan Capistrano it makes us feel special that they chose our house again to nest. If you click on the links (you may have to copy and paste), they will take you to the song of each bird here. I also found an incredible site that has much information for "birding."
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/

Have fun reading our thoughts!




This is a mourning dove with a grackle. They are called mourning doves because of the cooing sad, song that they make. The grackles have colorful patches on their neck. They're mean. The mourning doves is why they're called mourning doves is cause they're always in the birdfeeder at morning. The mourning dove's beak is not curved.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Mourning_Dove.html#fig1

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Common_Grackle.html



This is a house wren. They only came to visit once or twice and there were several of them. Their beak is small, straight and pointed. It might be a female red winged black bird.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/House_Wren.html


This is a cardinal. It is a male.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Cardinal.html#fig1


We think this one is a Bridled Titmouse. It eats insects and acorns. The one below is a Bridled Titmouse too.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Bridled_Titmouse.html

This is a white winged dove. It is not common in Texas.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/White-winged_Dove.html#fig1

This is a female cardinal. It has a red beak not like the many other birds. And it's light brown. And the male is red. The cardinal's voice is very good. It's feathers make a mowhawk and some don't. The cardinal's are only is special spots and you don't see them very often around town. Usually in backyards.




This is a red winged black bird. It has a little bit of yellow on his wings. He's about 4 inches tall. His beak is pointed and not curved. We see it sometimes in our backyard. The female is more dark brown and is not black or red.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Red-winged_Blackbird.html



This is a house sparrow. It can be 5-6 inches tall. They blend in with trees. They live in cities and suburbs, and farms.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/House_Sparrow.html


This is a goldfinch. These are very obvious, but they blend in very well with the magnolia tree. This is a male. The female's colors are duller. They're just about darker. They look like the color of a flower.They sometimes come to our backyard and they eat in the birdfeeder and they don't fly away, but then a grackle comes and it scares them away. They nest in mid summer. They kind of look like the lemon fish in our fish tank.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/American_Goldfinch.html
This is a house finch. The house finch has a red head and a brown body and the female has just a plain brown body. They are very common around the United States.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/House_Finch.html