One Robin's Nest

Last month I discovered a robins nest down by the grain bins in our yard. Over the next few weeks I enjoyed quickly checking it whenever I would take Abigail for a walk by it in her stroller. The mom and dad birds. They were both protective of the nest and would fly quite close to me. You can see the male is a lot darker then the female.

The first time I found the nest it had four beautiful blue colored eggs in it. I love robins:).

A few days later this little fellow had hatched. Then there were two of them. The other two eggs never did hatch.The next time I went down to look there was a huge difference; one of the babies had already flown and this guy was ready to go as well. And finally, the empty nest. It was fun watching for a few weeks:).

Bird Watching

It has finally warmed up enough to go outdoors without freezing:). A few days back, while talking a walk around the property, I spotted two Great Horned Owls perched together in a tree. I had my camera and was able to take few pictures. I looked them up in my bird book when I got back inside and found that they are the top predators in their food chain, and will often kill and eat other owls and even skunks! Maybe that is where half the cats on the farm have disappeared too!

Right as I was taking this picture the other owl flew away and just missed being in the shot.

Close up. They have incredible hearing as I was quite a distance from it when I made a small noise and it immediately turned to look at me.
Bird Facts:

Voice: Series of hoots, also screams, barks, and hisses; female higher pitched.

Nesting: Old stick nest, in tree, exposed cavity, cliff, human structure, or on the ground; 1-5 eggs; 1 brood; January-April

Feeding: Hunts mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects; mostly nocturnal.

Signs of Spring

"He changeth the times and the seasons...." ~Daniel 2:21

I was excited to see a couple of Robins hopping around the yard yesterday:). Looks like spring is finally on it's way here in Saskatchewan!

~Bird Watching~

We have been blessed to have many varieties of birds nesting in our yard this year. :) So far we have had: Ring Necked Turtle Doves, Cardinals , Carolina Wrens, Brown Thrashers,(I was planning to upload the photo I took of the Brown Thrashers nest as well, but I keep having problems with the upload.) Blue Jays, and in the back woods Wild Turkey. :) It’s been so enjoyable watching all the different kinds of birds up close and seeing how the different kinds each build their nest in their own unique way. God’s creatures are all so amazing!

Wild Turkey

We came across this Wild Turkey nest in the back woods one day while hiking. If anyone was still wondering about the "mystery egg" after looking more online I'm pretty much certain that it was a vulture egg, not a turkey. As you can see, turkey eggs are smaller and also have a slight point at one end while the egg we found in the driveway was larger and had more of an oval shape.

Blue Jay

This Blue Jay nest is in a tree in our back yard. These birds don't really seem to be very common in this area, so it was neat to have them nesting in our yard though it was about twenty feet up in the tree. :)

Cardinal

This is the second Cardinal nest we've had in our yard this year, this nest is just right outside our kitchen window. :) I was a little surprised that only one egg of the four eggs hatched. We never bother any of the nests and when I take the pictures I do it quickly without disturbing anything so I don't think that could be a problem. Does anyone have any ideas?

Ring Necked Turtle Dove

This Ring Necked Turtle Dove (photo of dove sitting on nest) has it's nest in a tree in our front yard where we can watch it while sitting on the porch. These birds are interesting in that both the male and female incubate the eggs. The male during the day and the female at night. The eggs take 15 days to hatch.

Carolina Wren

Some Carolina Wrens built this nest in our shed wall a few weeks ago. :) Wrens are such neat little birds, it's interesting at times to see where they choose to build their nests. We had one once that built a nest in a hanging plant on the front porch.

Photo credits: All small photos of the adult birds were taken from Wikipedia, the small dove photograph was taken by Erik A. Drabløs.

Bird Watch-The first Robin of Spring

Birdwatching has been something I've enjoyed for a long while and the American Robin has aways been one of my personal favorites. As Spring fast approaches it brings back memories of seeing the first robin of the season. When we were still living in central Illinois I remember that the Winters always seemed so long and how exciting it was to see the first robin which indicated that spring had finally arrived. :) After moving to the South I was delighted to find that though the robins don't arrive in Spring, (our winters are mild anyway) we have them in the Winter. For the past few months we have enjoyed having the Robins here, one time I counted more then 50 robins in our front yard at one time! I have not seen any for a few weeks, so for those of you who live up North they are probably on their way! :) Below is a little information about Robins that I found interesting.

A Little about the American Robin:

The American Robin is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast. It has seven subspecies, but only T. m. confinis in the southwest is particularly distinctive, with pale gray-brown underparts. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and The American Robin is active mostly during the day and assembles in large flocks at night. Its diet consists of invertebrates (such as beetle grubs and caterpillars), fruits and berries. It is one of the first bird species to lay eggs, beginning to breed shortly after returning to its summer range from its winter range. Its nest consists of long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers, and is smeared with mud and often cushioned with grass or other soft materials. American Robin nest

-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Song:

A musical whistled phrase,
"cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up."
Call note a sharp "chup."

Description

large thrush.
Back and wings gray.
Underparts red.
Dark head with white eye crescents.
Size: 20-28 cm (8-11 in)
Wingspan: 31-40 cm (12-16 in)
Weight: 77 g (2.72 ounces)


And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. Genesis 1:20

Bird Watch: Seagulls

Here are a few pictures that my sisters and I took when we went for a walk around the lake uptown. This being Florida, there were plenty of seagulls to photograph. :)

"And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmanment of heaven."

Genesis 1:20

A few facts about Seagulls:

~Gulls are seabirds in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns (family Sternidae), and more distantly to the waders, auks and skimmers. Most gulls belong to the large genus Larus. In common usage, members of various gull species are often called sea gulls or seagulls.

~Seagulls can drink both fresh and salt water. Most animals are unable to do this, but seagulls have a pair of glands above their eyes, specifically designed to flush the salt from their systems through openings in the bill. That is why you'll see seagulls near large bodies of water such as the Great Salk Lake where fresh water may be hard to find.

~Seagulls can live between 5 to 15 years depending on their environment and predators. The average is probably closer to 7 to 10 years. Some individual gulls have been known to live over 25 years.

~Some gulls migrate, especially ones in the northern parts of the world, such as Alaska. Like other migratory birds, they go south during the winter. The migratory patterns vary widely depending on where they reside in the summer, but they can travel thousands of miles to find better food sources.

Bird watch: Brown Thrasher

The baby birds

Sitting on the nest.

Interesting Facts about the Brown Thrasher:

• Brown Thrasher chicks leave the nest at only 9 to 13 days old.
  
  
• They are aggressive defenders of their nest, and have been known to attack and strike at people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.
  
  
• The Brown Thrasher is known to be one of the best and most beautiful singers with the largest variety of songs of all the North American birds. It is a elusive bird, so the chance of anyone seeing it is smaller than that of hearing it sing. It sounds similar to a Mocking bird. Some Brown Thrashers (like the Mocking bird) are very good imitators of other birds songs.
  
  Description:
  
• Size: 9-12 inches long
  
• Wingspan: 11-13 inches
  
• Mostly brown on top including tail, the underside is white or buff colored with dark brown streaking. It has yellow eyes and legs. The wings have two bands of
  white across them.