Goldfinches that is. I haven't seen them around for a while, but yesterday they showed up to entertain me in the front garden.
For the past few weeks it's pretty much been bird time in my garden. Although some of the species start nesting quite early (like the grackles and house finches), others start a bit later. Even others raise more than one brood a year, and if you add into the equation the different development times (some birds take longer to mature) you end up with a period of at least a couple of months where the sounds of begging nestlings or twittering fledgelings are almost constant.
With almost any endeavor you need a certain intensity in order to be successful. Gardening is included in this -- successful gardeners need that drive, that single-mindedness. It's all about the plants, and it's difficult to "get it right" without some level of obsession.
I've fed birds in my yard for years. Usually I have two types of feeders up year-round: a traditional one that contains a mix of sunflower seeds and other "songbird" type seeds, and finch feeders that contain Nyjer ("thistle") seed. (I add hummingbird feeders in the warm months too of course.)
The house finch nest which has been a regular feature on my front porch for the last three years (or is it four?) has been productive this year again, with the second of the two broods almost ready to fledge.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you're probably familiar with the finch nest. It's been a regular feature of my front porch for three years now, two broods a year. I posted about this the first year, then last year too, and then earlier this spring in the infamous bird rescue board post.
The second brood of house finches nesting in my front porch are just about ready to leave the nest. I missed their younger chick days probably because they stayed hunkered down in their really tall nest, but now that they're bigger they're standing up in the nest all of the time.
A while back I mentioned the nest that the house finches were building under my porch roof, but I haven't talked about it again since then. I always forget how quickly baby birds grow up, and if you don't watch almost every day you're going to miss something.
Last spring a pair of house finches made a nest at the top of the post on my front porch and raised a family. I was too slow removing the nest after they fledged, and they raised a second brood in the same nest. I suppose it could have been an entirely different pair of house finches, but that seems unlikely. After the second set of chicks left the nest, I waited to see if they'd raise a third family, but it seems like two is the limit. I then left the nest up for the rest of the summer and fall for no reason other than pure laziness.
With everything that's been going on here with wildlife (early mantis hatchings, kitten antics) plus all of the regular garden work, I've neglected to keep you up-to-date on the finch nest that is on our front porch.
If you remember, there is a house finch nest on our front porch. Here's one of the original images:
I've written before about the wrens that were building a nest in my garage and under my deck, and hung a birdhouse. I have not yet talked about this:
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