Brown Thrasher

Our summer residents, Ike and Tina are parents again!

They are baby Brown Thrashers.

They’re in the Holly bush in the front yard.  The nest is only about 5 feet off the ground, so I can easily see in.  I just hope they survive.

This is Mama (or Daddy) having a bath.

They come every year, and have about 4 broods in the same nest.  She used the exact same nest for several years until last year, something got the last batch of babies.  I think it was the black snake Al captured a few months back in the snake wrangler episode!  So this appears to be the new nesting spot.  How smart of her to realize the last nest spot was no longer safe? I expect if all goes well she will use this nest every year.  We’re pretty sure its the same pair because of the fact they use the same nest. I don’t know where they go after they leave here, but we only see them in the summer.  It’s interesting how different birds are.  The Carolina Wren’s only use a nest once.  Their nests are amazing how neat and round the nest cavity is. The Bluebirds go from one nest box to the other and don’t seem to use the same box twice in a row, but will come back the next time. They make a very neat nest out of pinestraw. Mockingbirds throw together a bunch of twigs and the nest is kind of sloppy and doesn’t look very comfortable.  All of these birds raise their babies together, with Dad working as hard as Mom.  They are amazing parents and it’s fun to watch them raise their babies.  The Bluebirds seem to be learning to fly.  Quite often when we go outside we will see a bunch of Bluebirds flying around together from tree to tree following each other.  It’s like they are practicing their take offs and landings. You can usually tell a youngster by the way they land.   When birds fledge from their nests its very difficult to tell them from their parents.  I read that it takes Bluebirds about 2 weeks to learn to fly well. They are at least as big as their parents and often even larger when they leave the nest. One thing I do notice is many times they don’t have many tail feathers at first.

We cleaned the back porch last night and had to take the Hummingbird feeder down.  Someone was angry and very glad when it got put back.