Springtime Is In Full Effect: Carolina Wren Edition: Egg Me!

A funny thing has happened the last few weeks.  A pair of Carolina Wren's have been building a bird nest on the screened in porch.  I know this leads to a few questions.  First, "How did they get in?"  Well, one of the screen doors is bent at the bottom.  They learned they can just fly down to the ground, and hop onto the porch.  The crack in the door is plenty big enough for them to scoot through.

The second question would be, "Where are they building this nest?"  Well, that's the funny part of this story.  They are building their bird nest in my old bird feeder.  It was old and broken so I had it sitting in a chair on the porch.  I guess they thought it would provide a nice place for a nest.  So for two weeks they built it.

For two weeks, when I was sitting in my chair, I would happen to catch a glance at the Wrens on the porch.  I thought they were hunting for bugs and lizards.  Namely, because they would be on the porch for a short time, and then head out.  What I didn't know was they were building a nest.

What really makes me question the bird-brained madness of it all is, if you remember, I put up five bird houses around the property.  I wrote a blog about it back in early March.

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-birdhouse-community-apartments.html

I was told that Carolina Wrens build several nests around the area, and then decide to choose the best one.  So I figured that this would end up being a decoy nest.  I ended up taking some photos of the nest.

The next day I decided to take a closer view.  That's when I saw this:

That, my friends, is a Carolina Wren egg.  I guess they chose their nest.  So today I went out to check on the nest, and I found this:

That is definitely two eggs.  Now we're starting to get a clutch of eggs going.  I'm going to keep checking on the nest a few times a day.  I want to take photos of any eggs as soon as they appear.  So stay tuned.  It won't be long before they hatch.

Springtime For Bluebirds... And Happiness! Part 2

Here's the first part of the story:

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/03/springtime-for-bluebirds-and-happiness.html

In my previous blog I was telling the story about how a pair of mated bluebirds had built a bird nest in my birdhouse.  Well, they ended up laying six eggs.

It's funny.  Even their eggs are blue.  But I digress.  Not too long afterwards the eggs began to hatch.

Like I said, there were six eggs, but only five of the eggs hatched.  The last photo was taken on March 31st, 2019.  A few days later I started taking daily photos of birds.

April 4th.

April 5th.  One of them has opened his eyes.

April 6th.  A lot more of their feathers came in, in just 24 hours.

April 7th.

April 8th.  They are really starting to be fully covered.

April 9th.  Out of nowhere they now have blue feathers.

April 10th.  Everyone's eyes are open and feathers are coming in nicely.

April 11th.

April 12th.  They are starting to look like adults.  Or at least, juveniles.  And this guy has decided to move off the main nest into the corner.  I figure it won't be long before they leave the nest.

April 13th.  Everyone is awake and looking good.

April 14th.  Oh my!  They have left the nest!  Except for Bob.  Bob doesn't want to move out.  I don't blame him.

April 15th.  And they have all left the nest.  (Tears.)

Wow.  That's the circle of life.  Actually it's the circle of life in just 16 days.  Can you believe they left the nest in just 16 days?  But like a circle, life never ends.  Bluebirds can have up to three clutches of eggs in the spring.  So they might be back to lay more eggs.  Not to mention I have four other birdhouses set up around the property.  They might move into one of those.  And if they do, I'll be there.  Oh, and so will my blog.

And speaking of blog posts, this is my 700th blog post.  I started writing back in April of 2008.  Here it is 11 years later and I am still writing.  If there's something happening and worth writing about, I'll be here typing it all out.

The Birdhouse Community Apartments

If you're a regular reader you know that I've had a birdhouse out in the backyard for a while.  I've actually had pretty good success with it.  Or, should I say, the birds have.  It was brought up that there could be more than one birdhouse around the property.  I thought, "That's awesome!  Let me get on that!"

So, it was time to put up more birdhouses.  Four new birdhouses were delivered to house.  Two of the houses were bluebird houses, one was a parakeet house from the pet store, and one was a finch house.  It was decided that I would paint the two bluebird houses and the parakeet house.

First up, I drilled holes in the bottoms of the birdhouses.  If any rain would happen to get in, the holes would let it easily drain.  I also drilled holes to allow airflow and for wire to go through.  I wanted to use wire instead of drilling holes in the trees.

My photos start right after I had applied the first layer of paint.  I used an oil enamel paint that would withstand all the weird weather we get here in Florida.

There was a really interesting article on the internet about making barriers for birdhouses.  The barriers help keep out squirrels.  I thought, "I can make one using plywood and a forester drill bit."

First up, I cut the plywood into their appropriate shapes.  Then, I painted them with the oil enamel paint.

Next up, I finished painting the base coat for the three birdhouses.

After that, I drilled the wooden barriers over the entrance holes of the birdhouses.

Now the fun part, it was time to break out the forester bit, and drill the entrance hole.

Of course, I had to touch up the paint.  So I had to open up the can of paint again, and get to painting.  Once I was finally finished with the oil enamel paint, it was time to get to the fun part.  That's when I camouflage the birdhouses to blend into oak trees.  I use three spray paint cans to achieve the camo look.

When I first tried this technique I thought I needed a lot of green.  I was wrong.  I'm trying to blend into the oak tree bark which is more gray.  So I lightly spray black paint followed by a bit of brown.  The real trick is to use a light almond type of paint.  Blending the three colors makes the birdhouses look like a distressed gray color.  How well does it blend in?  Take a look.

Not bad, huh?  So now it was time to hang the first bluebird house.  There is a place on the property that birds like to hunt for bugs.  So I put the house in the oak tree right over top of the bug hunting territory.

Alright! Mission accomplished!  Now we move to the finch house.  I ended up hanging it near the bluebird house.

I didn't want to put the parakeet house near the other houses.  So I ended up putting it on the opposite corner from my original parakeet house.  I made a trip to Ace Hardware to pick up some supplies.  I ended up buying a 10 foot metal pole.  I also bought a bolt, nut and washer to attach the house to the pole.

I dug a three foot deep hole, and then managed to shove the pole into the ground another foot.  So, all in all, the pole was four feet deep.  I felt pretty good knowing it wasn't going to go anywhere.

Finally, there was just the one bluebird house left.  It was decided that it would be hidden in an Anise bush.  Can you spot it?

Let's look a little closer.

Closer.

I told you that I could paint a great camo pattern.  

So now there are five total birdhouses on the property.  I know what you're asking, "Have any birds moved in yet?"  Well, stay tuned!  There will be another blog post detailing the happenings around the yard.