Baby Robin

Although very hard to see there is a small robin in the nest in this spruce tree.  This is the second batch of babies for this year.  There were 3 of them however, to my amazement, a hawk flew in and grabbed one of the babies that were left untended while the mother was getting food for them.  As soon as the mother robin saw the hawk she chased it away but by then the baby was gone.  Perhaps the second baby suffered the same fate.  The mother robin sat and called for many hours after the attack to no avail.  A sad tale for the mother robin and the chick but the hawk had a great dinner.

Elderberries

There are several of these elderberry bushes in my yard and the robins especially love the berries.  I have been watching the robins chase other birds away from them and as soon as the berries are ripe the robins have them picked off.  Once in a while another bird will sneak in for a few but not often. 

Dragonfly - Broad-bodied Chaser?

I have not had much luck trying to find the common name for this dragonfly.  I am now wondering if the markings on the wings are unique to each insect.  I have found lots of pictures of dragonflies that are the same shape and size but the markings are different.  The closest I could come to it was the Broad-bodied Chaser.  If there are any dragonfly experts out there perhaps you could shed some light on this. 

This is only one of many different shapes and sizes of dragonflies that are here every year.

I do know that all dragonflies eat mosquitoes and blackflies so they are more than welcome in my yard whenever they like. 

From Birds to Flowers

I have been posting the birds but forget that I have more than birds in my yard. The peonies are huge this year.  They are so big and heavy that I am going to have to stake them because the stems are starting to break.  I am taking a bit of time to do more with the gardens this summer.  With a family reunion this fall I want to be sure they are all weedless.

Helper on duty under the bird feeder

  I could use a little help here!                              Whoa - that was quick!


I am always surprised to see the woodpeckers eating sunflower seeds.  I know they eat a lot of grubs and insects and even the suet I put out for them and I wondered if they were getting insects from the sunflower seeds but no - they are actually eating the meat from the sunflowers.  This one is quite often at the feeders right beside the other birds but today he decided to help out the cleanup crew instead.

Bird Feeder Clean-up Crew

One of my chipmunks works diligently to clean up all the seeds the birds drop around the feeders.  Between the chipmunks and the mourning doves things stay pretty clean.  The woodpeckers and bluejays are the biggest culprits because they are very selective as to which seeds they want and the rest get tossed or scooped out with their beaks.

So far I haven't had any bears around this summer so until I do I can leave the feeders out.  As soon as I know they are around I make sure to bring the feeders in at night.  I have to get up early to put them out again because the birds and chipmunks start lining up pretty early.                                           

                          

I like this one for the aviary.  A friend of mine has one and thinks they are the best there is when you have several birds.