Our Wildlife: 2020

a dog, a coyote and a tennis ball

On the morning of December 7th, 2020, I took our Weimaraner Luna for some exercise playing fetch on the tennis courts at a neighborhood park before starting my work day. After a while, I noticed we had company. I've seen coyotes alongside the road in deep East Texas before so it didn't take long to realize what it was. I pulled out my phone to photograph the coyote and then realized it was sticking around so I switched to video. I was intrigued by how interested it seemed to be in Luna. And she was also interested in it. At least for a while...

St Francis Park is in a wildlife corridor running along Ash Creek as it winds through East Dallas. I routinely see neighbors report sightings of a variety of creatures in the neighborhood on the NextDoor app, animals that likely make their home along this creek. This coyote looked healthy, well-fed, so it seems life in the corridor is pretty good. An entirely different world, tucked right in between broad tracks of residential homes like ours.

Best viewed full-screen.

Music

Angela Climbs a Boulder at Horn Creek, the Sun Sets, the Bat Flies By by Aaron Ximm

What's In Your Lawn?

Birds aren't the only thing flying around our house. It just took getting down at ground level to appreciate all the other flying activity.

Think these are pests? Think again! Although many wasps including North Texas natives like paper wasps, red wasps, cicada killers can sting, that's usually just when you bother them. So don't! They are hunters who are generally beneficial to your garden. And your yard.

For more information, check out this article.

Video best viewed full-screen.

Music

Perfectly Mowed Lawn by VYVCH is licensed under CC Attribution License

first attempt to fly - a video by jack

The June clutch of finch chicks have fledged but here is a look back at the day or so before they flew off.

This video was created with the help of my grandson Jackson. As all our families are sheltering in place, he and I spend time each week together online, working on various projects. This week I was showing him how I create videos for the Our Wildlife channel and blog, letting him play around with DaVinci Resolve.

Enjoy!

Watching the Nest

With the latest clutch of chicks large enough to sit up in the nest, it was fun to pull up the live stream for grandkids Harper and Jack to watch on the TV.

Feeding Time for June Chicks

The June chicks have hatched and within a few days were large enough to see in the nest as they crane their necks, mouths wide, for food from their parents.

June Eggs Have Hatched!

The June clutch has hatched. Lots of activity on the nest these days as the parents come and go with four hungry mouths to feed. Watch the live feed for glimpses of the chicks each trying to get their share.

It's amazing how fast they grow... before you know it, these chicks will have fledged!

June Eggs!

Momma Finch is consistent, I'll give her that. This is her third clutch of eggs this year and each clutch has had four eggs.

Stay tuned to watch the June clutch hatch, feed, grow and fledge!

New Finch Nest Under Construction

Momma Finch abandoned the nest she built in early March and instead has started building a new one on top of the next post over on our porch. Hopefully, we'll see some eggs in the next week or so.

A New Finch Nest!

The May brood of Finch chicks fledged about 10 days ago so I went out today to check the nest, see whether Momma Finch has started preparing for her next clutch of eggs.

She absolutely has, though not as she did the last time. This time, instead of cleaning up the nest, trimming the edges and adding new material, she abandoned the original nest and started a new one the next post over.

The new nest is still a bit crude, sticks hanging over the edge, and there are no eggs yet. However, based on past behavior, within the next week or so we should see eggs in the nest, first one or two then within a few days as many as six.

I've removed the old nest and cleaned up the top of that post. I've also moved the video camera, so that the live stream is of the new nest. Join me in watching over the next month or so as this Finch pair start raising their third brood of 2020.

New Home for the Wildlife Part 2: Screech Owl House

Our newest project to make birds feel at home around our home is an owl house.

A little over 25 years ago, my sons and I built an owl house from plans we found (I don't recall the source - the Internet of today didn't really exist yet but I work in technology so it may have been an online source or we may have found something in the local library). We mounted it on a pole on our fence line in the back yard. The years went by and it never was occupied, whether by an owl or anything else. The neighborhood we lived in at the time didn't have a lot of large mature trees and though there was pasture land and woods just across Belt Line from us, for whatever reason the location we mounted the house never attracted any tenants.

In the late '90s, we moved to a new house, also in Mesquite. We took the owl house with us when we moved. However, being a brand new neighborhood, there were even fewer large trees. The years went by and when I ran across the owl house as I was cleaning out the garage one weekend, we decided it was time for it to go. Instead of tossing it in the trash, we took it down to the Trinity River Audubon Center, donating it in the hope that it would provide a good home for a screech owl or kestrel family somewhere along the river.

A little over two years ago, my wife and I downsized, moving to a house in the Hillridge neighborhood of East Dallas. Of the many things we love about the house and the neighborhood are the large, old trees. We have seven cedar elms on our lot, most of which are as old or older than the house (which was built in '64). This finally gave us a prime location to mount an owl house. I never could find a set of plans exactly like our first owl house but I found this one on Amazon that is very close to that design.

As the house needed to be 12-20 feet high, ideally facing south in a location with a clear flight path but also with plenty of limbs nearby for the parents to perch on, I mounted it on the tree furthest from our house at the edge of the driveway.

Stay tuned... hopefully within the next year we'll see screech owls take interest. If so, I'll share photos and video of our new "neighbors".

New Home for the Wildlife Part 1: Bat House

One of my Christmas presents last year, one that I'd asked for, was a bat house. We live within about a tenth of a mile of a creek so there is water and we have plenty of insects so there is plenty of food. Hopefully, with those things going for us, bats would take roost in my bat house. The challenge was where to mount it.

Ideally, a bat house would go on the side of a building at least 12 feet off the ground and facing south. It needs to be high enough that predators can't reach it and so that it gets direct sun during the day - the bats like it warm when they are sleeping.

Unfortunately, with a one story house we don't have any exterior walls that high. The other choice would be to mount on a pole but with seven large, old cedar elms in front and back yards and with power lines running along the back fence there's not really anywhere to put one up.

Although the side of the chimney is high enough off the ground and faces south, the bat house is only a few feet above the surface of the roof so it remains to be seen whether the bats will feel safe enough to roost in it. Normally, early summer is when bats take residence in a new house so I guess we'll see in the next few months.

BTW, thanks to my son Chris for helping mount the bat house.

New birds in the front yard!

We recently discovered unique art pieces from MetalBird. I'm looking forward to seeing this set of cardinals change over time as the light and shadows change throughout the day, as the seasons change and as the steel weathers.

Check out this and other birds at MetalBird USA.

Feeding and Nap Time for May Finch Chicks

The May clutch of chicks being raised by a pair of Finches in their nest on our front porch are getting more active by the day. Here's a glimpse of them being fed, first by Dad, then Mom and Dad. Afterwards, Mom settles in on the nest while chicks nap after having their fill.

Nest Update: Hatchlings!

Last weekend, there were four eggs... this weekend what appear to be four chicks. We'll see exactly how many when their head's start popping out of the nest at feeding time.

Stay tuned to watch the May brood feed, grow and fledge.

Seen around our bird feeder

Activity around our bird feeder over course of a few days, with glimpses of the pair of finches who have a nest on our front porch.

Nest Update: 4 Eggs

After doing a little more research on finches, I discovered that it may take several days for Mom to lay all her eggs. Since the March clutch had 4 eggs but there were only 2 eggs in the nest when I checked a few days ago, I took another look today. Sure enough, now there are 4!

Stay tuned to watch the May clutch hatch, feed, grow and fledge.

Hide and Seek!

As Luna and I were leaving for our morning walk, we noticed a squirrel sitting on one of the trees in our front yard. He was incredibly bold! I was a little cautious as it's unusual for a squirrel to be so fearless, wanted to make sure we weren't dealing with a rabid animal, but he wasn't aggressive and wasn't wobbly or disoriented. Ultimately, he took off up the tree. Not sure Luna knew what to think... she was "on point" but was patient, didn't try to lunge after him.

We have 6 large cedar elms in the yard so have lots of squirrels and Luna often sits at the living room window watching them running and playing chase with each other from tree to tree across the yard. This is her first real experience interacting with one directly (unless you count chasing them as they run along the fence in the back yard).

More Eggs!

After the first brood of finch chicks fledged, the mother started adding new material to the nest and cleaning it up but was only around a few times a day. Last night, the mother spent the night on the nest for the first time in weeks. I took advantage of a time this evening when she was away from the nest to take a look, and found there is a new clutch of eggs. Just two this time, but that's not unusual. According to a Wild Bird Watching article on Finches, they typically lay between 2 and 6 eggs at a time. So, for the next few weeks, most of the activity will be the parents coming and going and the mother spending a lot of time sitting the nest but it won't be long before there will be new chicks to watch. Enjoy!

New YouTube Channel: Our Wildlife

When I started sharing video of the finch nest online, I originally used my personal YouTube account. However, to make sharing all the finch videos simpler through a single link, I've created a separate YouTube channel called Our Wildlife. It isn't cluttered with the odds and ends of video I have posted over the years on other subjects.

I'm moving all the prior videos to the new channel and will be posting all new finch nest videos there plus perhaps other things in the future such as owls, bats, etc.