Birds...Birds...Everywhere

After we watched a pair of Barn Swallows working together to build a nest, we began to notice a lot of different birds around the yard.  I could tell that the boys were especially excited about what all they were noticing.  I encouraged Bo, who is my early riser, to take the field guide outside one morning and see how many birds he could see in our yard.  I also bought a pair of binoculars to try to inspire a little more bird watching.  Sure enough, the boys began to notice a lot of activity in our yard...

We have two large brush piles left from the storms back in April.  In the picture above is a Brown Thrasher we found nesting in the brush pile in our front yard.  The bird is slightly off center toward the left and it has its mouth open.  We watched the bird going to and from the pile of brush and we were able to locate the nest and see the baby birds opening their mouths...

The blackberry bush along the fence in our backyard has been a popular place lately.  The littles love running out and eating the few ripe blackberries each day.  While eating the blackberries one day the boys spotted this beautiful nest...

But after some research it could be a House Sparrow which might make it not so beautiful after all.  Apparently House Sparrows are not a native species and are aggressive toward our native songbirds.

That could explain why the bluebirds we have nesting in our box every year never hatch out the eggs they lay.

We cleaned this box out about a week ago.  Boo asked if he could put the next he took out in the maple tree.  He wanted to see if another bird would use it.  I told him he could but a bird wouldn't use it.  But a few days later he ran in to tell me that there were three eggs in the nest he put in the magnolia tree.  It has since fallen out of the tree...but I was surprised that a bird was going to use it.

The boys also found this unidentified bird's nest in the magnolia tree.  It's a little to high so we can't see inside...

 Birds we have noticed in our yard...

Cardinals

Mockingbird

Brown Thrasher

Barn Swallows

Dove

Red-Headed Wood Pecker

Bluebird

unidentified yellow and black bird

Isn't it amazing how many things you can actually see in your own yard when you begin to pay attention?