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.