I keep the bird feeders filled with sunflower seeds and
cracked corn year round. Although the
diet never changes, the species of birds visiting the feeder vary from season
to season. The last few weeks has seen
the arrival of what I think of as the summer visitors. Many of these, like this Blue Grosbeak, would
be difficult to view if they didn’t regularly visit the feeder.
Even though they are permanent residents in this area, I
rarely see Brown-headed Cowbirds in the winter.
During the summer, I routinely see them at the feeder. They are also to be found stationed atop the
tallest trees around the property, watching to spot nest locations in which to
lay their eggs.
A gathering place for birds that don’t typically visit the
feeder is the vegetable garden. Brown
Thrashers patrol back and forth along the vegetable rows, plucking larvae from
the plants and pulling grubs or cutworms from the soil.
Chipping Sparrows search the garden for both seeds and
insects. This guy kept chasing and
eating some type of insect moving quickly across the planting beds. He captured several in just a couple of
minutes, but I never got a look at what he was hunting.
Field Sparrows have found the mulch of cut grass in the
garden to be ideal nest material. They
are frequently seen leaving with mouths full of the fine grass stems
and leaves. The top of the fence is a favorite perch.
Bluebird pairs seem to find an abundance of suitable insects
inside the garden boundaries. The female
sits on one post …
… and the male usually sits on the next post over. When an insect is spotted, they will fly down
to pick it up and then return to the post.
With all of those garden insects to feed on, it’s no
surprise that the Bluebird couple claimed the bird box nearest the garden.
The female has just begun incubating this clutch of five
eggs, so I probably won’t be seeing much of her for the next couple of
weeks. After that, she’ll be busy
ridding the garden of insect pests in order to feed her growing family.
With their aerial displays and propensity to chatter, Tree
Swallows are usually the most noticeable of the summer birds at Blue Jay
Barrens. These birds were uncommon here
25 years ago. When I first installed
bird boxes, they were all occupied by Bluebirds of Chickadees. Now, 80 percent of the box inhabitants are
Tree Swallows. The shallow pool of water
at the site of my new toad pool construction has been getting a lot of
attention from the swallows.
The area that has been stripped of vegetation seems to be a
preferred site for the collection of nest material.
The final phase of Tree Swallow nest building is the
addition of feathers around the rim of the nest. The birds almost always use feathers from
domesticated chickens or ducks. The
battling Wild Turkey males leave an almost daily offering of feathers in my
yard, but the Tree Swallows don’t find them of interest. Maybe they just have a preference for white
feathers.
No Tree Swallow eggs have yet been laid, but I imagine that
will change soon. By the time the last
of hatchlings leave the nest in late summer, the resident population of Tree
Swallows will be about four times what it is now.
