Way to go, Randy!

You will laugh at me, but I had phoebes around for a long time before I realized that the bird whose song sounded like "fee-bee" that I so enjoyed hearing was a "Phoebe". My all time favorite bird that I see here in southern Oklahoma is the Painted Bunting.

Dawn

Oh, Randy, how nice of you to reunited baby and mother! I have birds that nest in the gaps between my covered garage and my big old pine trees. The house finches nest in the columnar juniper every single year. Do they always stay in the same place? These have been here forever. But, they're so cute! I love to watch them play. They are pretty used to us now.

Susan

Sweet little bird! You guys are lucky, I have several mockingbirds that nest in the backyard. The only time I can not get outside to play, when they are learning to fly. I swear they can hear me open the back door and here they come. They have managed to corner a cat under my hydrangas and I had to go rescue the thing. Not my cat by the way. They have pecked every tomato that has every been planted as it turns red. Unfortunately, I really like the things, they are so proud and fearless.

I have a red tailed hawk that flies by periodically and they dont even try to move from him. I have found cardinal feathers, phoebe feathers, etc from his hunting but the mockers dont budge.

Speaking of hunters, new cat has appeared on the horizon, and he is a hunter. Have no idea where he came from but he has made by backyard his home, well, until the mockers have flying lessons.

I have had doves for years but seem to be a larger group this year. Usually just a couple but seems to be more than just a couple.

With the cold weather I have had quite a few birds so had to fill the feeders more than usual the last couple of days which is probably why the new cat has made a new home.

Happy gardening. Steffie

Dawn,

We love having the house open and listening to the male sing away.

Never seen a Painted Bunting here. Parent's have them on Arbuckle Lake.

Susan,

They reuse nests quite a bit. Have 4 nests around the house, but they seem to prefer the 2 they built the last few years.

Steffie

See a lot of mockingbirds here. They like to nest in our pine trees. They get aggressive when they have young ones in the nest. Been swooped at a few times.

Good morning all!

Steffie, I have lots of mockingbirds in the woods around me. One in particular follows me everywhere. If I am in the garden, he sits on the arbor and sings. If I go for a walk with the dogs, he flies from tree to tree and stays even with us, singing all the while. If I go into the house, he sits nearby in the Possum Haw Holly and awaits my return. Imagine being stalked by a bird! He does fill my days with all kinds of birdsong, though.

Our mockingbirds don't torment the cats, but the bluejays do!

We have more doves than usual this year, too, but fewer wild turkeys.

Randy, I love to leave the windows open, too, when inside, but we have so many frogs anymore that they are louder than the birds.

Susan, The painted bunting is just a gorgeous bird. The first time I saw one in flight, I knew immediately what it was. I only see them occasionally.

Dawn

How amazing that the baby bird was still alive when you found it. It must have not been out of the nest very long as cool as it has been.
We have a lot of birdhouses in the yard but we end up with mostly sparrows in them. I read that once the sparrows take up residency in your yard most of the other birds don't bother trying to make homes there.
We get a lot of mockingbirds which I am not at all fond of. And I supect mockingbirds for eating my tomatoes and peaches as well as chasing me and my cat. Grrrr.
I only rarely see cardinals which are my fav. And we have wrens which love to build in pots on the patio or anywhere they can find. One of our neighbors raises diving pidgeons and I hear them when I am out near my garden and often watch them flying around. They are sort of peculiar colored as well as their way of diving when they fly. These are black with white wing tips. They roost on the roof of his storage building.
I suppose you who live in the rural areas have Chuck Will's Widows? I only finally learned what they are last year. It is most interesting to read up on them.
Randy I hope the baby bird continues to do well. Very nice pictures by the way. What kind of camera do you use?

G.M.

G.M.

This is off-topic but I'll post it here anyway as it relates to your comment about birds eating your tomatoes and peaches.

For the tomatoes, if they are eating the tomatoes once they are red, you can trick the birds by hanging round, red Christmas balls in your tomato plant branches before your fruit turns red. After a couple of weeks of pecking away at those hard red Christmas ornaments, the birds should give up and go away. Usually they don't come back and you will have tomatoes for the rest of the season that are free of bird damage.

I haven't tried it with peaches....but wonder if it might work if you hung peach-colored ornaments in the peach tree in the same manner. I realize the average person probably doesn't have peach-colored ornaments in their attic or shed, but a little spray paint is all you would need. You might have to go to a craft store to get the spray paint in the right color.

Dawn

Dawn, believe it or not I do have peach colored ornaments. Nothing traditional for me. My peach tree is sterile so the only thing I have is web worms which have already started. I refuse to have the tree sprayed so I will take my little torch and have a web worm barbque. That is how my grandfather did it and he never lost his trees or burned anything he was not suppose to of course I was always on garden hose watch.

I got where I would get my tomatoes just before ripe and put them in the kitchen and let them ripen indoors. The mockers were not eating them, just pecking like they were playing. The problem seems to be they figure out which are ornaments and which are tomatoes, according to some of the garden lore, so you have ornaments hanging and the tomatoes are stilled pecked up.

The mockingbird goes back to the same area where they were born to raise their little ones, so you end up with mockers that are like family members. I have one that meets me each morning before I leave for work and flutters around while I do garden inspection. Then each evening he is back by the backdoor waiting on me. Guess I have a pet and dont know it.

MH: I did not have any cardinals for years. I started putting song bird food out all through the year and now they make morning runs and evening runs to the feeder. Cardinals are very picky about where they eat. They are not big on the usual bird feeder but prefer the saucer type that is hanging from the trees or poles. I also put my feeders in the shade with quite a bit of shrubs and a large tree nearby, they feel better protected. I also have a shallow bird bath for all the birds. My father was a bird watcher and raised birds so I got a some data from osmosis from him. If you give them the right set up they will eventually show up, it may take a while, but it is worth it. I have had as many as 5 males at one time eating and fluttering around. Oh, I did notice, dont hang your hummer feeders close to your regular feeders. The hummers in my area seem to be very aggressive and run the other birds off, well, not the jays or the mockers, but they are really not your usual bird. Oh, yeah, bird feed they seem to like: small oil sunflower seeds or the song bird mix you get at the old wally world seems to be the diet of choice.

Well, that was probably more than you wanted to know, but I got on a roll and Dawn and Susan can tell ya sometimes I do go on.

Happy gardening and bird watching. Steffie

Steffie,

Is your sterile peach tree a fruiting one that is self-sterile and needs a pollinator or is it an ornamental peach?

I don't have a huge problem with birds pecking the fruit, but the ornaments have worked for me. I do have a problem with turtles eating low-hanging fruit, but I just go ahead and let them have a few....when you grow as many tomatoes as I do, you can let the wildlife have some now and then.

I want to see pictures of you flaming those webworms! I imagine it will be quite a sight. Just imagining it brings a smile to my face. :)

I only had two webs of worms show up on two trees. I gave them to the chickens. It took the chickens a while to figure out worms were inside the webs, but once they figured it out, they had quite a good time.

I have had more cardinals this winter than ever before, probably a dozen or two at a time, and 3 or 4 dozen right before a big cold spell. I just love them. I usually feed them black oil sunflower seeds or safflower seeds. Every year I have a few safflowers sprout from seeds the birds have strewn around.

Seems like most gardeners are also bird watchers, doesn't it?

Dawn

Dawn
I will try the ornaments on the tomato plants. I will try anything to keep those birds from pecking the sides out of my tomatoes. They only want to damage the nice large juicy ones....just the ones I am axiously watching and having my mouth watering for. Last year they got the first 3 or 4 of them. Kept telling the cat to keep the birds out of the garden but he paid me no attention. I was ready to take a BB gun to them for sure...good thing I didn't have one. Thieving little birds...lol.
One or two years we finally gave up and put bird netting over all the plants but that was a mess because the plants kept growing up through the netting....lol. I told my DH that if we resorted to doing that this year that he would need to construct some type of frame to elevate the netting high enough to keep the plants from growing through. But I am not planting those enormous grape and cherry tomato types this year at all...so the larger fruiting varities should not grow as aggressively. And that will cause less problems should we end up resorting to netting.
I will find myself something to hang in the tomatoes and the peach tree as we always have to put the netting on the peach tree too.
Gee I do wish gardening were not so challenging at every turn! I just want to have good tasting fruits and veggies with out all this constant battling. Sort of like the Garden of Eden without the serpent! LOL
I was wondering if instead of Christmas ornaments I might get some of the plastic artificial fruit and add hangers? I don't think I have any colored ornaments....I have sold all of the old stuff in garage sales and went with whites and golds a few years ago.
Again thank you Dawn you are full of great ideas!
G. M.