By KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors Writer on May 23, 2012, at 10:56 AM Updated on 5/23 at 11:07 AM
THE OUTDOORS
When I imagine what I might do if I were caught outdoors during a bad storm my mind tends to jump to ideas to shelter myself ...
Our bluebirds marked Mothers Day with the beginning of a new clutch of eggs.
Nest building began May 6 and egg number one ...
The nesting attempt summary is this: First egg, March 24; total eggs, three; first hatched April 11; total hatched, two; ...
A mockingbird chatters while perched atop the sparrow spooker on the bluebird house.
The male eastern bluebird arrives with a juicy meal for the chicks.
They’re always just a little too loud and most of the time they just seem to want to figure out a way to be a general pain in the neck.
Sound like any neighbors you know?
Mockingbirds have always been around our yard but this spring their nest must be a little closer than in years past. They’ve decided our backyard is their territory – and territorial they are.
I hadn’t realized just how active the mockingbirds were until I decided to take a few bluebird photos after sunup – and before the wind picked up – this morning.
One mockingbird, I’m assuming it’s the male, is a genuine pain in the neck for the bluebird pair trying to bring meals to the growing chicks in their house.
Typically when the mockingbird is chasing one bluebird the other adult slips into the house to deliver a meal but the mocker is always right back chasing the bluebirds again.
He has taken up residence on top of the bluebird house and has covered the roof with his feces. He also wasn’t shy about coming over to perch on my photo blind and chatter away minutes after I arrived.
The bluebirds like to approach the house and sort of stage at the barbed wire fence. Sometimes they’ll sit there quite some time before flitting over to the house. The mockingbird doesn’t let them sit for long nowadays.
In a chase this morning the mockingbird and female bluebird put on quite a show of aerobatics racing between strands in the fence, under our covered porch and between the tree branches. They race along so fast it’s a miracle they don’t run into things – probably they do sometimes.
I welcomed the mockingbird because he won’t hurt the bluebird chicks and he has chased off all the house sparrows that do kill bluebird chicks. Plus I just like mockingbirds because they’re entertaining.
But after watching things for a little while this morning I’d bet the bluebirds wish they had a homeowners association they could turn to.
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