Duluth - Georgia - USA - Zone 7b
 

Garden Critters

2008 Bluebirds taking a dip
This same pair of bluebirds come back to nest in our yard every year.  They normally have their first brood in April and then quickly follow with a second brood and quite often a third later in the summer.  Here they can be seen taking a very chilly dip in the birdbath that still has a solid chunk of ice in the center.

May 2009
Here is the Carolina Wren parent waiting for 2 of the 5 babies to take their first flight.  They nested in the terracotta pot that they are perched on with a saucer over the top as a roof.  This is the area where I pot my plants and the parents would be coming and going not 5 feet away with me working at my potting bench.  They seemed to be quite comfortable with me being that close to them.

2009 Indigo Buntings and Cowbirds
At the top of the feeder is the male Indigo Bunting and his female is the brown bird to the left on the tray.  Apparently the females are rarely seen so I feel quite fortunate that she deemed my yard worthy of visiting.  The other two are a Brown-headed Cowbird pair.  These couples would often be seen feeding together or in pairs on their own.  They were here most of April and May but I stopped seeing them toward the end of May.

2009 Robin eggs
In April I noticed the robins making a nest in the camellia bush growing up against the brick wall of the house.  I was worried about them as we were planning on moving the bush when we started work on our garage extension.  The nest was built and the eggs laid.  Then the four chicks hatched and the parents started bringing insects.  The day before the excavator was due to arrive I cut a large section of the branch off that included the nest with the babies.  This I moved about 7 feet away and secured it in my bay tree.  I stayed at a safe distance to see what the parents would do.  They both found the nest's new location and just kept on bringing food to the babies.  The next day my husband removed the camellia bush with the excavator and still the parents went on feeding the babies, much to my relief.  About a week later the babies took flight.

2009 Moth

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Copyright Reserved - Created September 2005 - e-mail Jane