Saturday, May 19, 2018

Backyard Birdwatching

Sometimes you have to sacrifice one thing to save another. That's what has happened with my once-beautiful hanging flowering plant on the back patio. I lifted it down one day to give it a good watering and was startled by a bird that flew out of it. I looked inside and saw that there was a nest with eggs. The eggs must have already been there for a little while, because by the very next day they had hatched, and there were four teeny, tiny, naked baby birds in the nest. It became nearly impossible to give the plant a decent watering without disturbing the nest and chicks. I did sprinkle it a bit, but soon all the flowers dried up and fell off. The greenery isn't all that pretty any more, either, but it's sufficient to give the birds some coverage.

Today I went on-line to figure out what kind of birds they are. I knew they weren't same variety that used to nest over our front porch. The father has beautiful red feathers; the mother is brown with darker stripes. According to my internet search, they appear to be "house finches." We've had quite a few of them hanging out in our back yard this spring. 

Mama finch hanging onto the wire and watching over her chicks.

Believe it or not, I think there are still four babies in this nest. Two of them are  buried beneath the top two.

Mama and Papa House Finch, sitting on our fence and keeping an eye on the hanging basket holding their chicks. Aren't they pretty?

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