Birds of May

This will be one of them cheap posts where I throw up stuff that appeared before. That means long-time readers of the blog are a bit cheated by the offering of past offerings but new readers have a chance to discover stuff they might have missed. 

It’s nearly the end of May and had we still been living in Colorado, I would be writing about the influx of birds into my then yard. 

That’s him yelling, not me. In fact, that’s the neighbor’s lawn. Anyway, I figure I would link a few post for them who miss my annual review of avian antics. 

We begin with the posts of 2014, the first of which was Birds – May 7-11, 2014. As usual for that time of year, the post is populated with a fair share of Tree Swallows. Some flying . . .  

. . . some perched . . . 

Oh, I should mention the fact none of the posts I link are short posts. Clever, yes. Short, no. Entertaining, yes. Quick reads, no. 

You have been warned. Oh, also, this is not a short post.

Anyway, there are other birds I showcase in the post along with a narrative that even includes bird sex. 

The next post is from June of 2014 but is titled Birds – May 17-19, 2014. 

That post has a couple of hummingbird photos but since I usually dedicate whole posts just to hummingbirds, I continued with an entertaining — or so I hoped — account of avian life within the confines of my yard and its vicinity.

Yes, that is a vulture, hence my use of the word “vicinity.” There were, of course and as always, other visitors. 

Yes, from year to year the photos tend to be familiar . . . hence why I enhance the narrative.

The next post — also in June — covered the Birds – May 21-24, 2014. A good part of the post covers swallows and in particular their choosing the box I had made specifically for them.

But also a new type of swallow that had started flying around there and availed itself of some of my gorilla mulch. 

They’re not the only bird visits I covered, but they were a welcome surprise. 

This next post is a bit of a cheat . . . it’s an update from July 2014 and is appropriately named July 2014 Birds.

However, I’ll offer it up here because of some of its unique shots. Shots like this one:

Also, the first chance I had to see the Tree Swallows feed their youngs from the new bird house I had provided for them. 

Also, a couple of slightly older birds badgering their parent for food (I understand human kids are not that much different). 

May of 2015 was a bit of an annoyance.

As can be read in Birds be all messed up, the Bluebirds went for the swallow’s box . . . 

. . . and the swallows opted for the Bluebird’s box . . . 

Of course, there were other birds . . . 

Kudos if you can recognize this next bird (read the post to see if you’re right) . . . 

Double kudos if you spot the bird in this next shot and then recognize it . . . 

This post also has documentation for something I had never seen before . . . a finch feeding on a dandelion seed ball. 

Perhaps I’d never seen it because dandelions in my yard were assiduously hunted and destroyed with extreme prejudice. 

That post also has my first-ever close-ups of the bluebirds . . . 

Did you ever notice how many birds look like they’re giving us the bird?

Anyway, the follow-up to that post was in July . . . Birds be all messed up – update. 

The swallows did nest in the crappier box and the bluebirds did what they always did . . . filled the box with a nest and then went somewhere else. I’ll update the rest of the story in a moment, but first a few more shots from that post . . . 

So, what happened with the swallows? Well, they had youngs and fed them, as documented in All sorts of stuff . . . 

Notice the black specks on the wood . . . those are mites. 

The adults can go and rinse off and have “dust baths” but the young have to endure as the mites feed on them.

This was the second year the birds had mites (the first year they were mites-free). Unfortunately, this is much-too-small a box for the size broods swallows have. There’s not much room to move around in there and it can get very hot. 

I never did a follow-up post because it was too depressing . . . three of the five chicks died inside the box. Two fledged and only one survived. You would think birds would “know” what kind of nesting box they need, but apparently not. The other, new, clean, and specifically designed for swallows box stood empty all summer.

At the end of the season, I tore down both boxes since we were moving the next year. 

That’s kind of a downer, I know, so let me show you a few other photos to take your mind

Them be bagel faces . . . they also did not survive. That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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