My yard has become an amazing nursery as of late - now that the grackles have grown and are on their own and all that grackalian parenting and territorializing have moved on. I have a new variety chicks in the nests and the most charming and amazing parent/young behavior I have ever seen.
"My" house wrens have successfully hatched a clutch of crying chicks I can hear as I walk near the post box I have set up. It took a very long time. I think they nested once and failed and after bringing in new nesting material (don't know what happened to the old material) they ritualized themselves into parenthood. I almost got bopped with a fecal sack the other day as I walked by and the highly energized parent shot out of the nest, flapping its wings but dropping before reaching optimum flight speed - dropping just far down enough to almost hit me in the head. Now that would have been a wild story about getting bopped from the side like a water balloon - Yuk! I just recently noticed that my robin population has more than doubled and that most of them are nearly full-sized adults with their colors still not quite up to adult robin standards. They are already independent - experiencing everything new. Watching one fly up to the edge of the birdbath and sit there knowing it was supposed to do something. Finally wading a bit and losing its balance as it slid or resisted the experience and finally unceremoniously waddling into the center of the water and trying to figure out how to get wet and still keep an eye about. After some 10 minutes of chuckles and precious moments, success was much more fun for me I can assure you. I have noticed that the young robins in the bush, shrubs and trees are trying to hang out with the adults but the adults are to busy gathering new nesting material in a bid to raise another brood. There are so many robins right now that ever time I turn on or adjust a sprinkler, I was gifted with an absolute flock of robins of all ages racing into the trees and surrounding shrubs, reveling in getting sprinkled and checking the soil for buoyant earth worms or insects. Even the young like the grape jelly. One of the most amazing behaviors has been of the chickadees. I have a number of feeders in arm's length eyeball range of my deck window and have an abundance and variety of birds that perform for my private audience. The most common and frequent feasters are the House Finches (I think they are really quite handsome, thank you very much). They come in mass usually and take every perch on one triple feeder snacking on sunflower seeds, broken peanuts and sunflower hearts. Their favorites change depending on their perch. Well, their is a flock, yes a flock, of chickadees that fly in now. They consist of at least one adult but mostly the cutest miniature young you can imagine. They are just a bit smaller than the adult and a young look about them for lack of any scientific description attempt. With the finches in full occupancy, this flock swarms the area and the young seem to keep in hoover mode while the adult goes about showing them how to roust the perch-hoggers. And as quick as that, with one maybe two finches moved along, the young mimic the adult and in a second the finches are swarmed and chased off by the overly mechanically aggressive and now cheerfully feeding flock. I watched them do a similar behavior around the birdbath when it came time to get a drink. The young hovered, the adult began setting the behavior standard and in moments all of the young joined in. I saw an example of unbridled trust and leadership between the birds. It was delightful. Young catbirds are also increasing the avian population of my lush, fertile, jungle yard. The only way I can tell which are the young is when they come in for a bath. The young also seem to be extremely independent and I have not seen any obvious adult/young demonstrations. The young come in aggressively to the birdbath and commandeer it as they matter-of-factly wade right in and get down in the birdbath boogie as only catbirds can do. The young are the ones with the smeared or diffusely mottled gray and white breasts - and a look of mid-bath accomplishment if I can impose human traits on the feathered entertainers. I am a bit tangled now with so many grackles on my tray and hotel feeders that I am going to stop stocking them as I tire of going out the day after stocking them only to find their contents scattered about on the ground. Now don't think this is unappreciated - just not my me. The overly abundant new broods of baby rabbits and ground squirrels and gray squirrels are most delighted with the behavior. Over the last week I have live trapped 15 squirrels and released them at this abandoned house I found a bit away from town. I doesn't have a front door, few windows and has evidence of a massive bird feeders attached to the house. I imagine a family reunion every time I drop of one or two of the family and some sort of Pixar party soon to be a movie in our local theaters. They really are cute - no thanks to images of Chip and Dale from my childhood. Anyone have any suggestions for ridding my yard of rabbits who, fortunately, have not yet found my garden past the flimsy 16" walls that separate their eyes from the waiting feast? I would prefer a nonviolent method but I am getting more and more open to possibilities. I must add that the grackle young are also very entertaining. There are quite a number of them and I can tell that many experiences are still new to them - like what to do when I come running and ranting at them trying to get them to shoo. They just sit there looking at me. The baby squirrels too. Thomas Maiello Spring Lake Park
