Odds and Ends

Even though so many of my flowers were destroyed by the hail storms of 4/27/2011 I do still have a few visiting butterflies. I also got a quick glance of the Clearwing Moth (so commonly called Hummingbird Moth, although there are 2 different Clearwing Moths)

The most unusual place I have ever seen a bird lay it's egg.
Guess it was because of the color on the right of way post.
No, I do not know what happened, because I forgot about it for a few days.
When I went back to check there was no sign of it.

Eagle at Tierra Verde, Florida

I took these photographs February 2011. I posted photographs taken February 2009 at the same location, click here to see the earlier post. The photographs then were of what I thought was a 3rd year eagle. So is this the 5th year, or has the 3rd year eagle gone and this is one of the original parent eagles?

Sorry, the photographs aren't closer, there is a pond between the nest and me. With signs that people are not allowed any closer, due to the eagle nest.

I retire the end of the month. I will see if I am able to get back to blogging, or if retirement will still have me too busy to sit in front of a computer.

Babies in the trees

Not sure what the baby birds are. We have a row of 14 Leyland Cypress that we planted in October of 2004 when we purchased the property.

This year they have been full of nest. A few weeks ago Jimmy took Mason to see the baby birds. So a week ago when they were at the house Mason wanted to go see the baby birds. Papa (Jimmy) had to explain the baby birds were already gone.

But then Saturday afternoon we found yet another nest with more babies. They will probably be gone before Mason comes back this coming weekend.

Red Eyed Vireo nest through the last day in nest

This series of Red Eyed Vireo was taken in July 2007, with my point and shot camera. This may be what got me hooked on birding. At the time Jimmy and I were both on evening shift. Jimmy set a block under the limb so I could step up on it to get the camera above the nest. Every morning first thing I told Jimmy I was going to check on my babies. And went to photograph the nest. I would just hold the camera up above the nest and snap. Yes, there were more trashed photos than good using that method. No, it did not seem to disturb the mama bird, although she did not use that dogwood tree the following year.

If you ever see a Red Eyed Vireo nest it catches your eye the next time.

Mama on nest July 5th.
Eggs July 9th.

The birds hatched one each day for 3 straight days. This is the first good photograph I got after all three hatched. Notice the difference in baby 1 and the other 2. They were not ready to eat. Taken July 15.

Also taken July 15th.

July 16th, notice now 2 of them think I am going to feed them.

July 17th

July 19th

Also July 19th.

At this point I got scared that I had disturbed her and she had abandoned them.

They looked pretty bad to me. Taken July 20th.

July 22nd, and all is well. Whew!!!

July 23rd. Notice there is still a major difference in the last one that hatched.

Also July 23rd.

July 24th. What a difference.

I sold part of this series in a framed collage.

It was going to be used in a elementary school to teach the children about birds.

Song Sparrow bird nest in the neighbor's garden

The neighbor was in his garden when he came across this nest with eggs in his tomato plants. Same type eggs that were in his shed. Never did get to see those babies, for lack of access, due to a trailer blocking the path.
Hate to say it, but she did not do a great job of building the nest, but she only had tomato plants as a base. It kept falling over. There were only 3 left last time we saw babies in it there.

Then the nest was empty but the birds were still having a fit so the babies are probably wondering around under all the thickness of his garden. He has already found one he must have stepped on. We don't know if the other 3 are still in good shape and are being fed while on the ground or not.

Bird Eggs

This nest and eggs were in the neighbors carport about a month ago. Never could get close while the babies were there, and never saw a bird sitting. Thought the eggs were pretty. Then Tuesday morning the neighbor said he wanted to show me something in his tomato plants. It was the nest and eggs below. Apparently the same type bird, still haven't seen the bird. Sorry about the quality of the photo, but I only had my 75mm-300mm lens with me at the time, and could not get far enough away to get the shot I wanted. I will return with my standard lens, even if I have to wander through his garden without him. Another one I do not know how to identify. The more we learn, the more questions we have.