Quick Bird Watch Update

Lots of busy work going on here at the Hretz homestead. Chuck and Tim have fully planted our gardens. Also, all our flowers are in. I’m generally on flower-power and chicken duty while the men do the grass and food production. This works well for us.

House Finches

Today is touching base on the birds. We have seen the first round of House Finches come and go. The 2nd round had an unfortunate nest collapse leaving all the eggs smashed on the front porch. the third set of finches have a very full nest with 6 eggs. which in my experience is l larger brood.

In addition to wild birds, I’ll report we moved our 7 baby chicks out to the coop. They are doing well. Last night was the first night some, 4 of the 7, worked their way onto the lower roost to sleep. They grow up so fast! Previously they only slept on the little roost inside the dog cage, which I put inside the coop so they could escape large chickens, if need be.

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Winter Wren

Talking about the chickens leads me to the nest we have INSIDE the chicken coop. I Winter Wren has created a nest in the exposed rafters just inside the door. While this is a terrific element and predator-free location her preferred coming and going is very dependent on me. Not so ideal for her as she yells at me to get out of the coop and such.

I’ve made sure there are lots of mealworms and suet available for all the bird moms and dads feeding their younguns’ I like to make it as easy as possible. Hopefully this extra effort keeps them coming back each spring.

Bunnies

We had our first awareness of a Cottontail bunny nest a couple of weeks ago. Actually, Tim discovered it with the help of Cali, one of our dogs, where mom built the nest under our rowboat. They have since seen themselves into the big outdoor adult bunny world AKA- Chuck’s garden. I was very surprised to read that the mom bunny only comes to nurse the babies at dusk and dawn, leaving them to just hang in the nest and grow on their own.