Our next door neighbors and friends Mr & Mrs H who moved there last year from Winnipeg Manitoba are also nature lovers and avid gardeners and Mr H loves birding as well and has quite a lot of nesting houses he built when they moved there , he also enjoys wood working in his shop so Mr H , Papa and I have a lot in common lol , any who Mr H was happy to share his birdies with me , he houses Tree Swallows and Purple Martins both breeds we have never had with in our yard just around them in the forests of the valley . Now his yard backs on to ours as well as is beside ours or vice a versa lol and we get to see and hear both types of birds which is amazing as we love all kinds of birds and welcome new ones to .
This is the big house and it is huge and the funny shaped cones called gords on it are also for nesting . Mr H has these houses on pulley system where he winds them down and up to check and clean them out and to see how many have eggs in them . Now because these houses are new to his and our yard they so far have only one couple nesting but he has seen more about which is good . Mr H brought the house down for me to see and take photos of the Purple Martin eggs and how and what they use to make their nests .
Aren't they soo cute ?!
I wanted to be quick in taking the photos as I didn't want to bother the birds to much but Mr H said they just go and fly about when he is there and that's what they did they didn't fret or panic at all over us being there and taking their nest boxes out to have a peek and Mr H to clean the others that weren't really being used , he said some times they will just put stuff in the other boxes for no reason .
Then we went over to another house he has on the front of his property which is beside ours behind Papas shop .
Tree Swallow babies all snuggled up in their down filled bed snoozing ! Soo cute . Mr H told me that Tree Swallows make their nests with these feathers and we know where they came from the farm down the street from the Geese .
So that was an amazing experience for me to see and take photos of these new birds we have in and about ours and Mr H's yard .
Next we have Doves not just any Doves white and tan ones and I think these are raised Doves who get released into the wild who have been about here for some time and have hooked up with the wild Morning Doves and seem to be settling in just fine I have no idea where these pretty Doves are coming from but over the years we have had quite a few about .
They all have had different markings some are more white some have more tan or caramel as I like to call it and some have odd stripes of caramel colour but they all have been at my feeders and about the yard and are very pretty looking to . I had one last year I did a post about I named Snowy who ate out of my hand and let me pat him .
Last but not least another new but not as exciting as these birds I found some pretty pillow covers/cases for the living room for the summer seasons .
Would you believe I got them from the Dollar store one of my fave stores by the way lol ! Yeah 2 bucks each that's all and they are made well . Cute Huh?!
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Just to give you an idea this is where I spend most of my time this time of year .
Not the fanciest of porches but I love it here , faces west and all the happenings in the back gardens , feeders and yard go on here , perfect for Miggs and I . I spent from sun rise to sun set here on this porch so when I say from my back patio porch now you know where I am coming from lol so to speak .
Well that's about it for me for now I had a wonderful week again this week , finally got rain with thunderstorms last night and rain on and off today , the weekend looks to be sunny so out again we go to enjoy. Actually I love sitting on the porch on a rainy day to lol !
Until next time .
Country Gal
7 comments:
Lovely to have purple martins, and to get a close up look at the eggs. We've spotted the indigo bunting a couple more times, but no photos. The red bellied woodpecker was in today, haven't seen him for awhile. It has been pouring of rain all day ao my photos are through the windows and raun, hope they turn out. Haven't had any replies in my gmail, but perhaps you are stepping back from the internet as I'm doing. Those are neat cushion covers, the dollar stores are one of my favourite shops to briwse in. At least I won't have to water the veggies for a couple of days. Have a good weekend.
I think birds know good people when they see one, hence being comfortable around them.
Hi Elaine: Well, you can imagine how cool it was for me to see the inside of the swallow nest. It's so beautiful with the soft white feathers and those darling babies. :))) Now I know what to expect to find when the swallows leave. I can hear the babies now as I walk by the bird-house, noisy little things. They sure are keeping mom busy. How fun for you to have a neighbour much like yourself when it comes to the love of nature. You will certainly enjoy each others company and learn from each other, too.
Hello and happy Summer. Love the Martin houses and seeing the babies. We have some sparrow boxes here but this year they didn't use them. We have family in Miss. and they had lots of Martins. We have had more Robins nesting this year in our yard; the only think I don't like is the mess from them.
Thanks for sharing.
Hugs,
Noreen
That's really interesting about the birds and birdhouses.
That must have been exciting to see the nests, you always wonder what's going on up there. I love how they used the goose feathers. The doves are interesting, I have never seen those markings before. I had to laugh when you said you finally got rain. All spring and summer, the rain just won't stop here. We get a sunny day here and there, but then it starts again. At least things are green. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Thanks, Elaine, for sharing the information and the photos. I especially liked seeing that little baby bird snuggled in. I hope that you will bet similar photos when the eggs you showed hatch out. I have never seen a purple marten fledgling although we did have a birdhouse for them on our VA property.
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