It's been a bit since I've uploaded some bird information. However, it doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping tabs on the nest!
The egg count changed a bit. There ended up being a maximum of 5 eggs in the nest. 4 solid, 1 speckled. Then eventually, it ended up being 4 eggs, 2 of each. There was no sign of breakage and there was no evidence on the stone beneath the nest.
We had a welcome surprise on the 8th; a hatchling! Based of the positioning, it was one of the speckled eggs. I swung by a few days later to see a hungry hatchling expecting food from my phone as I snapped the picture.
I waited about a week to get back to the nest. This time I was greeted with a "WTF" face. I knew someone was going to start flying soon.
I swung by yesterday, and to my surprise, the nest is empty! No evidence exists of the other eggs. However, I do see flight activity as I approach from time to time. If course I've been unable to get any good pictures, and I'm still unsure of what the initial inhabitant is. Maybe someone in the Autobahn society will stumble accross this gemlog and let me know?
When removing some overgrown "decorative" trees in front of the house, I found a defensive dove standing her ground (as defensive as they can be). Surprise surprise, there was a reason. She had nested in one of the trees sladed to be removed. I guess I'll be waiting a few more weeks or so before I remove it. Mama has been back and a week later, they're bigger and appear healthier too!
I've still got finch activity around our Southern-most nest box. This box was successful last year when we installed it. The other 3 had some evidence of intrest, but upon cleaning them out, there were no fully built nests.
I did notice that we have a catbird nesting in the Japaneese Barberry. Their calls are one of my favorites.
Last but not least for now, I happened to see a Pileated Woodpecker breifly land on of our trees. It's crazy how big they are. Unfortunately it didn't find any reason to try to extract any bugs. They're LOUD! The first time I ever saw one it scared the crap out of me while I was hiking, I never knew they could get so big!
Of course, there are many other common birds of New England that frequent our yard. I'll likely write about them at some point.
