Four bluebirds hatched on 4 July, as expected. By early a.m. 5 July, & since then, temps have been in the mid-90s in the shade so surely inside the bird box on the clothesline arm had to be hotter. Years ago, under the same circumstances, I had successfully put an old umbrella over the box to shield it from the sun & heat, so on the 5th I did the same. The birds were wary for about 45 min., alternately sitting on the clothesline or making aborted trips towards the box entrance. Finally the male dared go in. After that the umbrella became just a part of their natural surroundings & feeding has proceeded.
The 4 ft. high garden fence, distanced some 8 ft. all around the clothesline post, protected the tree swallows from the neighbor's cat. Four of the five fledged right on schedule, with the feeding help of the second female after the male disappeared, but the 5th was a runt that I found down under the much larger sibs. I found it dead the a.m. of the 3rd day after the others had fledged. Apparently the female had her own built-in sense of how long she should feed. How much we DON'T know about nature! For those who don't know, according to _Stokes_ _Field_ _Guid__e_, "The Tree Swallow is the only N. Am. passerine with an immature plumaged female in the 1st (& sometimes 2nd) yr.. The imm. plumage allows them to approach breeding adults & their nests without being chased away. This lets them monitor breeding pairs & be ready to replace any adult female that dies during the nesting season." .... In this case, it was the male that was replaced. I am noticing even more this yr. than last the lack of insects, which I believe is due to the the farmers using more insecticides, so I'm seeing far fewer swallows. Strangely, the numbers of chimney swifts staying here has increased this yr.. I am still over-run with house sparrows despite destroying eggs & females (catching them at night.) I have put 2 set mousetraps in boxes to which the male sparrows are attracted (once I was sure no swallows or bluebirds will use them.) By a fluke I've caught a male that way. Of course, it's the males who destroy the eggs & kill the bluebirds & swallows. I am dismayed about the spay & neuter program started here in the village by several women who, for several mos., have been feeding larger & larger nos. of strays .... some 22 to 30 by their own counts & sightings _in just 2 colonies_. I love cats but won't have any that aren't "fixed." I am angry to see these feral cats coming here into my area, some distance away from downtown, as they hunt, (despite now being well fed), spread fleas & fight with house pets. A vet comes from Ithaca to Wells College to spay, neuter & give shots for $40 ... funded in part by the Facebook "Go fund me" page. Last I knew the women had collected about $1200!!! These cats have no true shelter so come winter, once again, cats will have frostbitten limbs & ears, or will freeze to death. And who will be able to catch & pay for cats that have other diseases or abscesses & other injuries from fighting? Late getting this posted but for those who haven't been by Mill pond along Rte. 90 for a couple wks.. The Eagle Scout, perhaps with help from someone in the village, has erected a kiosk with a bit of history of the area along with very nice pictures of ducks & geese that have frequented the pond during migration. The only activity on/in the pond recently has been a GBH (great blue heron.) I've seen no one sitting on the new benches the scoutput along the pond. On Factory pond, Becky saw a new set of "woodie" woodlets following their mom last wk. but I didn't see any yesterday. The first set of "woodlets" are almost full size now. These are the first wood ducks to raise young there in quite some time that I know of. Becky & I have seen some very large fish in the pond & suspect someone put their catch of carp in the pond, maybe thinking they would clean up the scum on the surface. I complained to the village public works supervisor about how disgusting Factory pond looks with the mung all over it & the beaver fallen trees in the water. Waste of breath! That's the news from Union Springs. I'm grateful for a cloudy day today. Fritzie -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
