Bird notes - Mon, Jul 18, 2016

A lot of bird activity has existed around our home this month with the young birds visiting.

Fledgling and now young birds foraging on their own visiting our yard in mid-July include:

• HOFI
• COGR
• AMRO
• NOCA
• BAOR
• NOFL

Bird visiting our feeders and flowers in recent days:

• WBNU
• ETTI
• BCCH
• HAWO
• DOWO
• NOFL
• RBWO
• HOFI
• COGR
• AMRO
• NOCA
• MODO
• HOSP
• Blue Jay

I don't think that I have seen AMGO in your yard. I've heard AMGO signing in our neighborhood a lot lately.

Around mid-day, three young BAOR foraged on our flowers, the older plants that produced seeds. The orioles fed low, near the ground. At one time, all three clung to the same flower stalk, tall coreopsis, I think.

One young BAOR perched on a tomato cage and poked at a small, ripening tomato. Then it spent several minutes tugging and poking at a green bean pod.

One green bean plant tangled a feeder vine or whatever up and around one of the tomato cages. A few green beans are hanging about 20 inches form the ground next to the upside-down pyramid-shaped tomato cages. The young BAOR perched on the horizontal metal rung of the cage and tugged hard and hammered at the green bean without much success.

The young birds are learning by being curious. The three young orioles stayed near each other as the moved about the flowers in the oval bed near the south side of the house, the flower bed along the south foundation of the house, and in the oak openings natives bed. One poked at a blooming black-eyed susan flower.

A young AMOR foraged in the oval flower bed near the south side of our house. And a few feet away, an adult AMRO laid on the lawn with it's belly flat on the ground, chilling.

At least two young NOCAs foraged on the ground in the same oval flower bed while an adult male NOCA foraged nearby.

The young cardinals and robins are feeding quietly on their own, but it seems that at times, the adults hang nearby to keep an eye on things.

A Blue Jay appeared to be "anting" on the narrow strip of lawn between the middle oval flower bed and the west spirea bed. That area of the yard has been a popular anting spot for AMROs and COGRs for years.

A NOFL probed the seems on our concrete driveway in our backyard, looking for ants.

at 6:05 p.m., male RBWO visited the suet feeder. two young AMRO foraged on the back lawn. and five COGR foraged under the feeders.

back in june, grackles would toss old, dry leaves, looking for food under the neighbor's pine bushes that are located a few yards from the west side of our house. we could hear the crunching sound of the leaves being tossed. i saw one the other day feeding under those pine bushes, but the activity decreased in july. maybe they needed meaty morsels to feed young grackles in the nest.

#home #bird #nature