last update for today
There are birds nesting on my front porch. Yes, I know I have mentioned
this before but I haven't said much about it lately because I was
afraid this nest wouldn't be successful.
Their first nest was destroyed by my neighbor's friggin' cat. There are anti-roaming laws in this town that apply to BOTH dogs & cats. I am so sick of the neighborhood cats destroying my property & killing animals ON my property. One of the damned cats scratched Puddles! What if Puddles had sustained a serious injury/infection from that incident? I would have had to somehow track down the owner and try to go after them. Not likely since the cats are NEVER wearing collars (and good luck trying to catch a cat).
And incidentally, yes, it was a good possibility that Puddy could have sustained a bad injury from that incident. The cat missed scratching her eye by only millimeters. This happened in my back yard, btw.
It really irks me how inconsiderate some neighbors can be. Yes, I know there are a lot of people (and probably on my friends list) who let their cats roam. Although I don't support that, I'm not going to say anything to judge you. If it's not illegal in your neck of the woods, then technically, you're not doing anything wrong. Even if it is illegal, that's your business & I'm sure you already know that not everyone is going to agree with what you do. :)
There are many reasons I don't understand it but I'll get off my soapbox & back onto the subject at hand.
So, the first nest was destroyed. I told my parents what had happened, so my dad came down & practically made a fortress out of their nesting area! He put up aluminum lawn edging all around the nesting platforms so that it would be difficult for cats to reach the nests.
He also put the remains of the nest back onto one of the platforms.
To my surprise, the birds returned and rebuilt the nest (mostly using the fur I'd brushed off of Puddles)!
I think the eggs hatched this week because I've seen both parents frequenting the nest & delivering food.
In fact, I just looked and both parents are here right now. One is at the nest and the other is standing guard close by. They're so cute. I have pictures and will try to post them soon.
So what kind of birds are they? That's open to debate. My dad thought they were flycatchers of some sort. destroyah_des helped me figure out that they might be ash-throated flycatchers.
However, Thursday night, a lady who runs a raptor rescue stopped by my house to pick up mealworms for 3 baby owls that she's caring for. This is a story in and of itself. Long story short:
She gets supplies from Los Alamos bird rescuers.
She lives only a couple blocks away.
M. is often at my house due to his commute to & from work.
My mom is trying to help the raptor rescue.
The Los Alamos bird rescuers often have to special make trips to the raptor rescuer's house in Santa Fe to deliver supplies. Given that M. goes from LA to my house almost daily, it's very convenient to have him deliver supplies. This saves a lot of time & effort for the volunteers.
So, the end result is that the first shipment of supplies (the mealworms I mentioned) were dropped off for the raptor lady to pick them up! Sounds like this will be a regular occurence.
Back to the story...
The raptor lady, Laurie, came over and I showed her the nest. She saw the parents and said they looked like "Say's Phoebes." So we did a bit of research! It's highly likely my birds are Say's Phoebes. Interestingly enough, they're a member of the flycatcher family!
So there ya have it.
I hope that this batch of babies is successful. I haven't seen the babies, nor heard them, but I know they're there. Laurie seemed to think that they wouldn't start getting noisy until next week sometime!
I've protected their nest area with a sonic dog/cat repellent. Let's hope it works!
And in other bird news, there's a hummingbird nest at work! We have a lovely little courtyard there & someone discovered a hummingbird nest in the globe willow tree there. I took pics. I will post those too. This is the second time I've been fortunate enough to see a hummingbird nest.
They are SO tiny and SO adorable! The nests look no bigger in diameter than a 50¢ piece.
Their first nest was destroyed by my neighbor's friggin' cat. There are anti-roaming laws in this town that apply to BOTH dogs & cats. I am so sick of the neighborhood cats destroying my property & killing animals ON my property. One of the damned cats scratched Puddles! What if Puddles had sustained a serious injury/infection from that incident? I would have had to somehow track down the owner and try to go after them. Not likely since the cats are NEVER wearing collars (and good luck trying to catch a cat).
And incidentally, yes, it was a good possibility that Puddy could have sustained a bad injury from that incident. The cat missed scratching her eye by only millimeters. This happened in my back yard, btw.
It really irks me how inconsiderate some neighbors can be. Yes, I know there are a lot of people (and probably on my friends list) who let their cats roam. Although I don't support that, I'm not going to say anything to judge you. If it's not illegal in your neck of the woods, then technically, you're not doing anything wrong. Even if it is illegal, that's your business & I'm sure you already know that not everyone is going to agree with what you do. :)
There are many reasons I don't understand it but I'll get off my soapbox & back onto the subject at hand.
So, the first nest was destroyed. I told my parents what had happened, so my dad came down & practically made a fortress out of their nesting area! He put up aluminum lawn edging all around the nesting platforms so that it would be difficult for cats to reach the nests.
He also put the remains of the nest back onto one of the platforms.
To my surprise, the birds returned and rebuilt the nest (mostly using the fur I'd brushed off of Puddles)!
I think the eggs hatched this week because I've seen both parents frequenting the nest & delivering food.
In fact, I just looked and both parents are here right now. One is at the nest and the other is standing guard close by. They're so cute. I have pictures and will try to post them soon.
So what kind of birds are they? That's open to debate. My dad thought they were flycatchers of some sort. destroyah_des helped me figure out that they might be ash-throated flycatchers.
However, Thursday night, a lady who runs a raptor rescue stopped by my house to pick up mealworms for 3 baby owls that she's caring for. This is a story in and of itself. Long story short:
She gets supplies from Los Alamos bird rescuers.
She lives only a couple blocks away.
M. is often at my house due to his commute to & from work.
My mom is trying to help the raptor rescue.
The Los Alamos bird rescuers often have to special make trips to the raptor rescuer's house in Santa Fe to deliver supplies. Given that M. goes from LA to my house almost daily, it's very convenient to have him deliver supplies. This saves a lot of time & effort for the volunteers.
So, the end result is that the first shipment of supplies (the mealworms I mentioned) were dropped off for the raptor lady to pick them up! Sounds like this will be a regular occurence.
Back to the story...
The raptor lady, Laurie, came over and I showed her the nest. She saw the parents and said they looked like "Say's Phoebes." So we did a bit of research! It's highly likely my birds are Say's Phoebes. Interestingly enough, they're a member of the flycatcher family!
So there ya have it.
I hope that this batch of babies is successful. I haven't seen the babies, nor heard them, but I know they're there. Laurie seemed to think that they wouldn't start getting noisy until next week sometime!
I've protected their nest area with a sonic dog/cat repellent. Let's hope it works!
And in other bird news, there's a hummingbird nest at work! We have a lovely little courtyard there & someone discovered a hummingbird nest in the globe willow tree there. I took pics. I will post those too. This is the second time I've been fortunate enough to see a hummingbird nest.
They are SO tiny and SO adorable! The nests look no bigger in diameter than a 50¢ piece.