Baby Cardinals update

Back on May 12th, we noticed we had 4 cardinal eggs in a nest in a bush by our porch.

Well, we have a baby. Only one as of Thursday night that I could see.

Mystery Bird - Brown Thrasher

On my search to figure out my Mystery Bird, I went to www.birdsofoklahoma.net and they had a link if you needed help identifying a bird. Bill answered me telling me it was a Brown Thrasher. I found a much better picture at All About Birds.

While reading about it, I read

An aggressive defender of its nest, the Brown Thrasher is known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.

This did not surprise my wife or I since anytime we came close it went crazy. Luckily it didn't attack my family of my son's friends.

I am so happy I finally know what that bird is. I also want to thank Michael for his help too!

I can now rest easy tonight.

Mystery Bird

I'm still trying to find out what kind of bird had their babies the other day in my Forsythia.

Here she is, up close and personal. She wasn't very happy with me being this close to her (though I wasn't as close as the picture would have you believe. Gotta love zoom!)

Here is another picture of her sitting on the fence. (I hadn't figured out my digital zoom on my camera). She is in the center of the gray air conditioner. You'll get a better view if you click on the picture.


If anyone knows what kind of bird this is, please let me know. I'll continue my search!

Here she is flying towars our bush where her babies were at.

Birds - Cardinals

A few days ago, my wife noticed a new birds nest (and more eggs) in another bush.

At first, we thought it was the same type of bird that we had seen before, but she later found out it was a cardinal nest this time.

I went to the Wildlife Departments web page to find out more about Cardinals, and I found some very interesting things.

One of the most interesting thing I found out was that they are Nonmigratory (which I knew) and territorial (which I didn't). They also may spend its entire life within a half-mile of its birthplace.

So for these 4 eggs may very well spend the rest of their lives around my house. That's sorta neat to think about.

Well for me anyway.

Oh, and the other day, I was outside on the swing just relaxing, and I heard this really short chirp. I didn't recognize it, so I was searching for the bird. I finally found it. It was the mommy cardinal. While I was on the web page I also found out that

Their call is normally a very short and sharp chink, but may vary from a what-cheer, cheer, cheer to a sweet, sweet, sweet.

(I thought the words to their chirp was funny till I said them out loud and realized just how right they were. hehe)

Birds & yard work

After church today, my wife and I went out to trim back out forsythia bush. It was over-grown 6 years ago when we moved here. I've trimmed it once, but just a light trim. Today, we hacked it.

We didn't hack it a much as we had planned because we ran across a nesting bird with eggs. And we didn't want to disturb them. Once the eggs hatch and fly away, well finish it off.

I also took a wack at a pine tree we had in the yard. The lower limbs are all over the ground making mowing very difficult. Plus, it just didn't look very good (plus my wife wanted those lower limbs gone) . So, we had basically finished with the forsythia bush, so off to the pine tree I went. Well, I finally got the lower limbs removed, but I really needed a bow saw. And since I didn't have one, I'll go back out and get some of those limbs a bit closer to the trunk of the tree.

In the process, I ended up getting pine sap on my arm. Specifically, my arm hairs. It is very, very sticky. Have you ever tried to get sap off arm hairs? Well, I tried one of the orange cleaners. Didn't work. I tried Dawn dish soap. I put some on, let it soak. Didn't work.
I finally tried some of the hand cleaner I use when I get grease and oil from working on the car. That took it right off. So, remember, hand cleaner you can get at any automotive store will take tree sap off your skin and hair.

Back to the birds. I'm trying to figure out what kind they are. They are a reddish brown to me. There are two of them which means the male stays around. It made a twig nest in the forsythia bush. I first thought the eggs were gold, but I looked later, and they may just be whitish with dark colored spots. I'm going to try to get some pictures soon.

Well, I'm sore and tired. I think I'm off to bed.

Hummingbirds

Always_Adventuring had made a comment about hummers here in Oklahoma, which made me wonder where all you can find hummers.

It appears that hummingbirds can be found all over the US and Canada

Learn something new everyday.

Hummingbirds

My wife just saw a hummingbird. So off to the Net we went to find how to make hummingbird nectar.

So here it is boys and girls just in case you were wondering yourself.

1. Mix 1/4 c. sugar and 1 c. water in a cup or jar.
2. Stir briskly with a spoon until the sugar is completely dissolved.

My wife found this at eHow.com

Something of note, you should change the nectar every 5 to 7 days, more often in hot weather, if it stays around that long.

Birds!

There is alot of open space where I work. A large fields all around us. A walking trail and creek by us as well. So, needless to say, there are a lot of birds. Currently I see a minumium of 2 geese every day. One of which is more than likely sitting on eggs. I think the other is the male of the pair.

Also, in the courtyard to where we work, there have been some beautiful yellow birds. I'm trying to get a good picture of them, but not sure how they are going to turn out. Anyway, I'm pretty sure they are Goldfinch They are beautiful.

Nice to be surounded by nature before getting locked up in a concrete building. Guess I'm lucky we have windows.