H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

This is the season to be careful when you trim bushes, cut branches of trees, mow tall grass or simply walk around where there’s vegetation. This isn’t about warning you from a danger to yourself. This is more about bird nests. They are all over the place, includes, roofs soffits, eves vents, under porches, decks, in sheds, under sheds  and any kind of vegetation that can hold a nest, even nests in the grass lawns.

In some cases you may find eggs laying on the ground, very possibly rejected from a nest with eggs from a different species. Parasitic birds that lay eggs in some other species nest. Not all of these are accepted, some are destroyed others are thrown out of the nests.

I ask you just to keep your eyes open. If you see a nest, do not disturb if it’s safe and remain in place, but if you find a nest in a shrub that you will remove, take the nest and place it in a safe place near to where you found it. The birds that own it will find the nest.

Same care when you trim bushes or hedges sometimes there are nestlings of fledglings on the ground blending in the with the mulch not to be found.

– A couple of years ago I kept an eye on a nest found by my neighbor in her property. The nest was built by a couple of House Finch. My friend asked me to take care of them.  I  used to check them daily and photographed them since they were eggs, after the incubation time they hatched and when they were nestlings after a few more days was time to fledge and they did, they flew from their nest. I saw them fly and go in different directions. It was quite an experience if you ask me!. My point is that It was so difficult to find them while they were on the ground, sometimes I was about 12 inches from them and couldn’t spot them! Their parents were watching from the top of a tree and later from the top of my neighbor’s house. –

So, be careful out there! 

House Finch (M)

Carolina Chickadee

Mourning Dove

Northern Cardinal (M)

Red-winged Blackbird (M) (J)

Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101