I’m happy to report that Melvin’s mother has returned tonight.  It was a scary night when she did not return last night and Melvin had to spend his first night alone.

Now as to why she may not have returned, I have a theory and I think it may have been my fault.

Because it’s been so hot, I not only asked Leecy to turn on the mister and point it towards the nest, but also asked her to place this sun shade fabric over the top of the shrub where the nest is.  I thought it would help keep Melvin just a bit cooler, and since both parents had returned after she placed the sun shade over the shrub, I didn’t think the parents were too freaked out.

I think I was mistaken and the sun shade did bother the mother enough where she didn’t return for the night.  Whatever the cause, I did remove the sun shade and the mother spent a lot of time at the nest today cleaning up the nest and just watching Melvin.

As you’ll see in the video below, Melvin is continuing to grow, and growing new feathers every day.

What should I do?  It’s only supposed to get down to 79 degrees tonight, so I’m guessing it will be warm enough for him (especially since it was 105 degrees earlier today) throughout the evening.  What about tomorrow?  Again, I’m just assuming, but I would like to think that the male Cardinal can still feed him, although both parents have been previously sharing that duty.

How long can these baby birds survive without one of parents feeding them?  When do I make the determination about whether or not to take him to a wildlife rehabber?  It’s supposed to be 100 degrees again tomorrow so I know he will be hot. We wouldn’t be able to get him to a rehabber until late tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

By the way, Melvin is only 7 days old so he is likely too young to be a fledgling.

Here’s a video of Melvin tonight, alone in his nest.

As I’ve mentioned in the my last few posts about Melvin, his father is taking a very active role in his feeding.

Here’s Papa Cardinal bringing in some food for Melvin.  It looks like he has some kind of worm in his beak.

Papa Cardinal Sitting On Pool Rock Looking At Nest

Once I moved away from the nest, Papa brought the worm to Melvin.

If you look closely you can see Melvin’s eyes just beginning to open.

Later Papa kept watch on the nest while I was watering the garden.

Papa Cardinal Chirping On Perch WIth Shadow In Background

The video is about 10 minutes long and I find it quite interesting to watch.  Both parents bring this huge piece of whatever it is to “Melvin.”  Mama’s piece of food was reasonable, and Melvin gobbled it right up.  Papa’s piece of food was huge, and “Melvin” struggled to swallow it.  I think Papa got a little frustrated with “Melvin’s” inability to swallow the food, so he gave it to Mama and it took her a few tries to finally get “Melvin” to eat the whole thing.  You’ll notice that the second egg still hasn’t hatched.  Leecy checked it today, and the egg doesn’t have any cracks, so perhaps it will still hatch soon.  The eggs were originally laid within one day of one another, but this second one is taking a while to hatch.

Before all of this happened, I noticed Papa watching me check out “Melvin’s” nest.  At first I don’t think he was too thrilled I was so close to the nest, but after a while he calmed down.

Papa Cardinal Worried I'm Bothering His Baby

If anyone has any guesses as to what that giant piece of food is they are trying to feed “Melvin” I’d love to hear what you think!

The overriding theme for the Purple Martins early in the morning is to stretch their wings, yawn, do a little singing, preen, and listen to the babies still in the nest squawk about how hungry they are.

Just like I would do, the first thing you do to start the day is yawn.

Purple Martin Yawning In The Morning

After the morning yawn and a few wing stretches it’s time for the family to begin preening their wings.

Then you start bonding with the family by doing a little singing, and ignoring their sibling who hasn’t fledged the nest.

Colony Of Purple Martins Enjoying Morning Sun

When the baby realizes that the sad stare “because I’m hungry” doesn’t work, it starts to squawk for food.  Unfortunately for the baby, this is their brother who just left the nest a couple of days ago and is still learning how to hunt for its own food, much less food for its sibling.

Baby Purple Martin Begging Sibling For Food

Just like a human family, the mother had enough of the squawking and flew out to get some food.

Purple Martin Mother Feeding Her Young

Once that baby quieted down, another mother went out and actually found a Dragonfly for her babies.

Female Purple Martin Finally Caught A Dragonfly For Babies

While some of the parents went out to search for food for their babies, others decided to spend some additional time bonding.

Brother And Sister Purple Martins Sitting Together

And that’s the way the world turns early in the morning for this Purple Martin colony.  I’m not sure what they’ll be doing the rest of the day, but I will do a nest check tonight to see how everyone is doing after the high temperatures we’re expecting today.

Even the birds are getting really hot today and are starting to pant even though it’s still early in the morning.

Here’s one of the new fledglings from nest one, and he was already starting to pant at 9 am this morning.

Fledgling Male Purple Martin Panting In The Heat

When I turned on the BirdCam to check on momma Cardinal and her nest of 2 eggs, even she was already panting.

I got lucky this year (or the Cardinal felt sorry for me) in that the nest is in our Gardenia shrub, which means I don’t have to climb a ladder to look at the nest, and I was able to position my small BirdCam without too much trouble.

I recorded a 10 minute or so video with the BirdCam.  If the first part of the video you can see the two eggs, then later you can hear mama Cardinal start chirping before she appears in the nest.  At around the 8 minute mark, mama repositions her eggs.

The good part about the placement of this BirdCam is it should provide some really good video once the babies are born.  The not so great part is that the camera is positioned fairly close to the nest to you can’t always see the mother in full view.

Day Eleven For Carolina Chickadee Babies

There’s 4 birds in that nest, so they are starting to run out of room to be comfortable.  It was just a few days ago that they were just little pink masses with a tuft of hair.

I finally got a new video as well.  There’s not much activity in the video, but at least you can see the birds.  I’ve got the bird cam focused on the opening to the bird house so as soon as they make their first steps out of the nest, I should have some video of that as well.

Speaking of which, I did make a small video recording today of these 5 chicks, and I bet they aren’t more than a few hours old.  They are super tiny!  That poor mother is going to be really busy feeding 5 little ones.  I plan on checking on them tomorrow when I get home and hopefully get some more video clips.

P.S.  I just read on this Carolina Chickadee Nestcam site, that Carolina Chickadee eggs are “synchronous” meaning that all the eggs should hatch about the same time.  So if that remaining egg doesn’t hatch by tomorrow, it probably won’t.

I’ll also say this.  The bigger SD card you can get, the better.  The BirdCam does take lots of pictures and/or videos, and if you have a pesky Squirrel or two like I do, you will end up with lots of images of that.

One of the funniest pictures taken was of this Red Bellied Woodpecker.  As I was looking at this picture, it took me a moment to see what the Woodpecker was looking at.  Look in the left hand side of the picture.  Did you notice that Squirrel in the Rose looking very guilty?

Red Bellied Woodpecker And Squirrel In Background

The Birdcam also captured a couple of birds that I have never taken pictures of before.

One was of a Brown Headed Cowbird.  If seen this bird in the backyard before, but not so frequently I’ve ever been able to take a picture.

Brown Headed Cowbird Captured With WIngscapes Birdcam

A second bird that I’ve never take a picture of before was of a Common Grackle.  In this image, the Mourning Dove looks a little intimated by the Grackle.

Grackle With Mourning Dove Captured By Birdcam

I was hoping I would be able to take some decent video with the Birdcam and overall I’m reasonably satisfied.  My one disappointment with the video capabilities of this Birdcam is that the maximum amount of each video is only 10 seconds.  I wish I could choose on how long it would record each video.

The most entertaining video that was recorded was of a little spat between the Common Grackle and the Red Bellied Woodpecker.  The Woodpecker didn’t seem to pleased about the arrival of the Grackle.

If the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds arrive soon, I may place the camera around those feeders.

On a different note, I haven’t sighted any migrating Monarch Butterflies from Mexico, but I’d be willing to be we’ll be seeing some arrivals in the Houston area within the next week or two.

Stay tuned!

It’s a Carolina Chickadee!

Here’s a picture of the actual nest.

Inside Of Birdhouse With Carolina Chickadee Nest

Male Bluebird With Mealworm In Mouth

Now I mentioned there was not a nest in the Bluebird house, but there IS a nest in another Bird House I have setup in the backyard.  Since I haven’t seen the Black Headed Grosbeak since last week, I decided to use my BirdCam on this house.  I have no idea what bird is nesting in this house, and I didn’t get a chance to take a picture today of the actual nest.  Tomorrow is supposed to be really nice and sunny, so I’ll take some pictures of the nest, and with any luck, I’ll be able to record some video of whatever bird has decided to nest here.

Bird Cam Setup On Bird House With Nest