The Uncaged Bird -Hummingbird feeder is up!
Morganna said:
That's terrific! I'm planting 2 new butterfly bushes tomorrow. When I found them at the nursery they were hosts to those little moths that look a bit like hummingbirds. I think I posted about them when I first saw them last year at a garden center. I hope I get some in my garden.
Wow, I've never seen one of these. It's a moth and not a bird?
Well, as they say, be careful what you put out there. Last evening around dinnertime I saw my first buck strolling through my back yard with his harem of 3 does! No babies.
I think there are plover chicks nearby, again 
Can it be 12 months, so soon?
mumstheword said:
Morganna said:Wow, I've never seen one of these. It's a moth and not a bird?
That's terrific! I'm planting 2 new butterfly bushes tomorrow. When I found them at the nursery they were hosts to those little moths that look a bit like hummingbirds. I think I posted about them when I first saw them last year at a garden center. I hope I get some in my garden.
Well, as they say, be careful what you put out there. Last evening around dinnertime I saw my first buck strolling through my back yard with his harem of 3 does! No babies.
Its a bug and my wish was granted! I saw one on the new butterfly bush. I never saw them in my yard before and I have always had butterfly bushes so maybe this one hitched a ride on the plant from the nursery.
The wren's chicks have hatched, I can hear them chirping and I'm watching the female go back and forth bringing food. What's interesting is the fact that when the female builds the nest she puts little egg sacks from spiders inside. When the baby spiders hatch they eat any mites that might otherwise attack the chicks. The sticky sacks are then used to carry droppings from the chicks to the outside.
Now that's what I call recycling.
very clever housekeeping indeed! I’d wondered if maybe they were a food source for the chicks until you explained
We’ve had some wonderful visitors this morning! D woke me two hours ago, all excited as he fed the regulars.
joanne said:
And he had to take this set from the front yard...
Do you think Australia would like to borrow the Trump Baby balloon?
That's quite a flock of birds wow.
I believe it’s coming here on the world tour
D’s always had an affinity for Jonathan Livingston Seagull, he gets a kick out of the days we have gulls and pelicans visit the lake. They don’t often eat here, though.
Here's an interesting article on the Amur Falcon in India. During this strange migration they cover the skies. Unfortunately there is in this area mass slaughter but it led to efforts to help the falcons while helping the villagers.
A rare white, not albino, magpie!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-22/what-is-a-leucistic-magpie/10019352
Morganna, have you heard of the Mallee emu wren?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-22/mallee-emu-wren-makes-comeback-in-south-australia/10021168
joanne said:
A rare white, not albino, magpie!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-22/what-is-a-leucistic-magpie/10019352
They are beautiful. I keep seeing pictures of albino or leucistic ravens and I wasn't sure if they were real or photo-shoped. I'll post one. As a fan of all things raven, crow and magpie I'm curious to find out if that handsome male will be accepted by a mate. I'm also enamored with albino birds and animals. Now I'll check to see if they are leucistic. I've saved a few shots of cardinals that must be leucistic.
The wren is beautiful as well. I've been waiting for years to see the first flight of my yards nesting birds. So far no luck. Maybe this new group of wren chicks will indulge me.
My cat Taliesin wanted to know where he fit in.
Scritches from us! He’s pretty gorgeous! *swoon*
(Not albino, no red eyes?)
Morganna said:
The wren's chicks have hatched, I can hear them chirping and I'm watching the female go back and forth bringing food. What's interesting is the fact that when the female builds the nest she puts little egg sacks from spiders inside. When the baby spiders hatch they eat any mites that might otherwise attack the chicks. The sticky sacks are then used to carry droppings from the chicks to the outside.
Now that's what I call recycling.
How the heck can you see that? I couldn't see my bird's nest from the front -- I first saw a couple of twigs sticking out the back door from the window, which is how I figured out the house was rented.
Speaking of hummers, look at this:
Hummingbird incredibly "changes" color every second
mumstheword said:
Morganna said:How the heck can you see that? I couldn't see my bird's nest from the front -- I first saw a couple of twigs sticking out the back door from the window, which is how I figured out the house was rented.
The wren's chicks have hatched, I can hear them chirping and I'm watching the female go back and forth bringing food. What's interesting is the fact that when the female builds the nest she puts little egg sacks from spiders inside. When the baby spiders hatch they eat any mites that might otherwise attack the chicks. The sticky sacks are then used to carry droppings from the chicks to the outside.
Now that's what I call recycling.
Speaking of hummers, look at this:
Hummingbird incredibly "changes" color every second
I can only hear the chicks but I see the female flying back and forth with twigs when she is building. The male sings so loudly that it attracts my attention. Later, when the chicks hatch I can watch her bringing food and leaving with something in her mouth. I read about the use of the spider sacs. If I sit in my yard I have a clear view of the bird house.
Pretty Hummingbird. I think they are picking up on the iridescence of the feathers. I notice the ruby throat of the male Hummers is obvious when the light hits it. Otherwise it looks dark greenish or black.
We’ve solved the Mystery of the Missing Terrapin! Just now, we were tossing tired leaves of iceberg lettuce to whoever happened to be lakeside (a couple of ducks, some mynahs, an ibis with jewelled wing tips, a lone gull)...
Swimmingly smartly up from beneath the cool depths under the waterlily leaves came the terrapin, now dinnerplate sized!! Too swift for a pic, sorry, but such a surprise ;0
I have to say, I'm really thrilled with how my environment has changed in the last 3 years. My butterfly/bird/bee garden is growing gangbusters, and, as a result, I have several different kinds of birds I've never seen here before, I now see 2 differently colored large butterflies, and there are now 5 hummers. Unfortunately, the garden is on the side of the house, and my backyard is all trees, so there's no sitting on the side of the house to watch what's going on. But I do see a lot of activity at the bedroom windows, and on the other side of the house, at the kitchen sink window. Yesterday I had to wash and refill the 2 most popular hummer feeders, and while I was scrubbing them at the sink, 3 of the smaller birds kept flying looking for the feeders. You could just see the question marks in their heads! I kept yelling, I'm coming, I'm coming! LOL! (I need to get a life.)
Or backup feeders so they’ll have a full one while the other is being washed and refilled 
As most of the hummer activity is early morning or at dusk, I do a quick change in the afternoon. I have the mixture prepared and cooled so its a quick procedure.
I took a quick photo of a monarch the other day, easy to spot they are orange. They do have a couple of look a likes. I always get the yellow swallowtails.
I now have 4 butterfly bushes in the front of my house and one in the back so I'm pretty happy particularly since I got that little hummingbird moth.
Just put in a few coneflowers again so I'm hoping to get the goldfinches back.
My wren chicks are very noisy now and the female is back and forth with food in and the little white package of waste out. Waiting for the first flight.
Did you notice any change of behaviours with the Blood Moon/lunar eclipse?
Here, it was action from 3:14 am to just before 6:50am, so early morning routines were a little disrupted by a kind of weak false dawn.
We’d got up at 3am and groggily dressed to drive to a local beachy promontory called The Spit, which has an observation point. Felt chilly!! (It IS mid-winter but temp was around 18C) A couple of plover families seemed most concerned about keeping people away from their sections of bicycle path or trees; a couple of gulls flew overhead and strategically pooped on a couple of noisy tourists; mostly, the night birds stayed in the background, waiting until it was mostly over.
I’ve noticed in other eclipses, especially solar ones. It’s like Nature is holding its breath... once dawn was really rosy-gold and the sky was daylight-blue, enormous scrub turkeys rushed out of the sandy beach scrub behind us and started to scrabble for fishers’ remaindered burley, fish-guts (‘oh? You’re not here to fish? What bloody use are you then?!’ the male seemed to say), and grass-seeds, etc. Fun watching them run up the stunted ti-trees and pandannus.
They were totally oblivious to the carpark crowds; I guess they’re used to them. By about 7:10am you could barely see the turkeys unless you knew where to look, they’d gone back into the scrub or (mostly) into the ti-trees, and among the scrub rocks. Gulls, ‘bin chickens’, mynahs, a few odd ducks and pigeons had taken over and it just seemed like an ordinary day....
Oh! And you should have seen the fuming impatience on our lawn when we had the temerity to finally come home around 11:30am!! Home ducks, ibises, couple of gulls, pigeons and magpies were definitely NOT amused and were considering writing to The Management 
Scully said:
Or backup feeders so they’ll have a full one while the other is being washed and refilled
I have 4 feeders, so two were available for them if they wanted. Mine are very picky about which feeder they use. They seemed to have chose which is "theirs" at the beginning of the season.
I finally got the honeysuckle to bloom. It took a few years to establish, battling the deer and woodchucks but its blooming profusely and accomplished its goal of luring hummingbirds.
Oh, how gorgeous!!
I’ve only seen the creamy and golden honeysuckles, not red ones. The luscious heavy scent gives me a headache now.
I thought you enjoy reading about this owl:
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That's terrific! I'm planting 2 new butterfly bushes tomorrow. When I found them at the nursery they were hosts to those little moths that look a bit like hummingbirds. I think I posted about them when I first saw them last year at a garden center. I hope I get some in my garden.