Besides the Cardinal mother who disappeared, I thought I had another bird scare today. When I was looking up at the Martin house I noticed this little tail sticking out. After watching it for a couple of minutes and not noticing any movement, I thought “uh, oh, a baby got stuck or died.” I really didn’t want to take down the Martin house to look because all the adults were flying around, but I also didn’t want a dead bird stuck right in the middle of the hole to the nest.
So, down comes the Martin house for a quick look inside. That tail that previously didn’t move, suddenly moved further back into the house. Then I noticed another tail, then another, and another, and another! There were 5 Martin babies in just this one nesting space. From the pictures of seen elsewhere I’d guesstimate these babies are around 15-20 days old, so about another week to a week and a half before they will be forced out of the nest.
I didn’t realize that Purple Martin’s raise so many young in just one nest. It was getting pretty crowded inside there, but not so much that the Adult male can’t continue to bring them a tasty Dragonfly every five minutes. He likely doesn’t have to search far, just fly over around the pond and he can pretty much pick and choose. In the super-quick glance I saw of them, they seem very healthy.
When we checked the other nesting sections of the house I was quite surprised I didn’t see more babies. There’s about 10 of the adults in this house, and most rooms do have nests in them, just no eggs or birds in any other than the one I mentioned previously.
I also learned, or relearned something about myself today. When I’m out in my backyard, either early morning or late evening and the wide variety of birds are just chirping away, I go into a natural peaceful state. From then, I’m just watching everything they do from feeding, to singing, to just flying around. I found it very entertaining and peaceful at the same time. I did take a couple of picture of the nesting birds, but right now they just look like gray with white blobs so you will can’t see too much.
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by texdr
2 comments
isaac - Between the martins and the sparrows in my house, it’s almost a cacophany. But when I hear the song of the martin in the late afternoon, you’re right, it is very calming.May 27, 2010 – 7:22 am
isaac - Between the martins and sparrows in my house, it’s almost a cacophany but when the martins are sitting peacefully up on the wire singing…it is a peaceful sound.May 27, 2010 – 7:20 am