Delightfully Cool Again!

After 3-4 days of blazing hot weather, we are back to below normal (substantially) weather. The day after the last post, we hit 100 F for daytime highs for 3 days. Bird activity seemed to slow a bit during that time. Now we have had a week of below average temps, Nice! 

Both the orioles and hummers are in high gear. There appears to be an influx of blackchin hummingbirds all of a sudden. The males are distinctive with their tidy iridescent deep blue collars.  They are slightly smaller than the more common Anna's but just as friendly.

This season's oriole youngsters are showing up at the feeders in good numbers and catch on very fast to the feeder routine, although they are more timid than the adults. Chatter, chatter - especially around dinner time!

Anyone interested in a nice collection of hummingbird photos should check out this link - http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=hummingbirds&w=9486153%40N03

Not Delightfully Cool!

What a difference in just one week. We are getting a big shot of summer, today through Saturday we will be flirting with 100 degrees. I stocked up the feeders for the hummers and orioles and will flush them out daily until the high heat is done. Mold and fermentation are more aggressive in hot weather.

Have not seen recent action in the bluebird box from the house wrens. Maybe one clutch is all for this year. The bees are somewhat under control for the moment. Recent TV news blurbs have made a big deal about Africanized honey bees being well established in the county and a few people have been stung repeatedly lately. I can not tell which type of bees are clogging the feeders but they are not showing any aggressive behavior, but some caution is due nonetheless. Hive protection seems to be the major dangerous behavior.

There are two hummingbirds exhibiting over the top protectionism regarding their feeders. The 'old guy', as photoed in early June blog, and another Anna's at the opposite end of the backyard. Orioles pay little regard to the behavior but other hummers are driven off post haste!

Hello to all friends and family who stop by and visitors from Europe and Japan!

Delightfully Cool Week

It has been a nice week, if you like cool cloudy weather. Hummingbird and oriole activity is high - although the amount of nectar used seems a little less than last year still.
Here is a photo of a hooded oriole nest out at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Seems like an unusual spot, they often prefer stitching their nests onto the underside of a fan palm frond that is angled about 45 degrees above horizontal. This gives protection and allows sag of the frond.

The threads that they use to weave the nest are clearly seen, these are stripped off of the palm fronds in the surrounding area. Seems like it would be tough getting a hold on the wood to begin the nest. The male and female hooded orioles were seen making trips to and from on the last two Saturdays. The photo is of the underside of a shade ramada covering a picnic table and the top 'shingling' is a thatch of fan palm fronds and may be why it seemed appealing to the orioles! A couple fingers of palm frond can be seen to the right of the nest sticking out past the edge of the roof.

Bee control techniques are having some limited positive results. The best implementation has been to the exclusion of the orioles. More work to be done.

Lots of Bees

The honey bees are really going after the feeders now, I'm continuing  to work on bee discouraging while still accommodating the orioles. Speaking of which, although the hooded orioles prefer building their hanging basket nests (photo to come) on the underside of fan palm fronds, at least one female is nesting up in the avocado grove. I watched her make runs between our queen palms (stripping threads off of the fronds) and an avocado tree at the edge of the grove. 
Finally, a photo of one of this year's oriole offspring - a young male. Bib is clear if a bit small, and his wings are more gray than black and yellow is not as bright as an adult.

 A new backyard bird - brown headed cowbird. They have an interesting courtship dance. The male fluffs up his feathers while standing up tall in front of the female. Then he makes a bow while spreading his wings in a forward manner as if to scoop up the female as he takes a few steps forward. She just sits and watches. Ho Hum! The second photo shows the brown head more clearly. Also, a second suitor can be seen giving a little competition! She flew off a minute or two later with males in pursuit. On a negative note - These birds do not make nests, instead they are parasitic. Which is to say they lay an egg in the nest of another bird species, especially orioles. Apparrently, they sometime remove one of the host eggs to make room. The eggs hatch sooner and the chicks are bigger. In some cases, this distresses the host population. I hope this is not happening in my area.

No further brown hummingbird sightings, will keep an eye out. Little Brown Bird (aka house wrens in the bluebird box) update - a day or two ago I saw a wren around the box. It was a quick sighting, could not tell if it came out of the box but may indicate a second clutch on the way. Will watch for indicators. Update Sunday 13th, Spent some time this morning enjoying the birds in the backyard. I think the male house wren is house cleaning in advance of attempting to woo a female into the box. He would go in the vent at the stop side of the box and exit the front door with debris. This repeated 4-5 times.

A bit off topic, but tonight we felt an earthquake. One of a long string of aftershocks from the big Easter quake. This one was not big (4.4)  (update Sunday, there were two quakes - the first 4.9 which we felt, the second a minute later - 4.4) but was notable in as much as it was mostly one big short jolt that caused quite a bit of noise in the house but no signs afterward. They seem to working their way north from the original location in Baja toward Palm Springs where the San Andreas fault hangs out. Lets hope it just seems that way and not really whats going on!

Summer is Almost Here

We are well into the summer pattern, no rain until late fall unless we are lucky and get a summer thunderstorm.

Update on the house wrens in the western bluebird box - no wrens in the box. It seems I have missed the fledging of the baby wrens. The smaller they are, I think, the faster they fledge. We will see if the adults try a second batch. 

Here is a photo of inside the box, that's a nest? I don't know which kind of bird put all those sticks in there, but wrens are small and the sticks are kind of big. That's about a 5"x5"x6" wad of sticks. And there is no soft 'bowl' of an egg holder to be seen. I am not sure how the eggs stayed on top!

The hummingbirds and orioles are status quo except - yesterday I caught a glimpse of either a rufus or Allen's hummingbird. Unfortunately, short as glimpses are, I could not tell rufus or Allen's, male or female. There was just enough brown on the tail to know it was not an Anna's or blackchin. Naturally, the several times I have sat down to solve the mystery, he/she has not shown up.
The honey bees are beginning to be a problem. I have started to convert to 'bee proofing' some of the feeders. This is a little tricky, most bee exclusion tactics tend to make the feeders oriole un-friendly. I am open to suggestions.

Tuesday evening at the Feeders

It's the 1st day of June, sunny but slightly cooler than normal (73f for high temps). Relaxing out back and trying to get a few photos of the fledgling orioles. I am not sure I did, but here are a few of the day's images.

 2 adult males at a large feeder

 Nice shot of adult male hooded oriole - Icterus cucullatus

 Nice profile of adult male, bright yellow with black chin and bib and black and white wings. The adult females and young of both sexes are difficult to tell apart except that the young males have a faint gray to black chin and bib.

One of the adult house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) actually coming out the front door! Usually, they zip in and out the vent slot at the top of the box.

 Either an adult or juvenile female hooded oriole, very hard to tell. No black under beak - so not young male.

 Adult male, keeping a eye on me while getting a drink.

This is the same old guy (Anna's hummingbird - Calypte anna ) from last month. This desert willow is his outpost from where he defends 'his' feeder. 

 A different adult male hooded oriole.

Three adult Anna's having evening drink. The hummingbird population seems a bit down this year (at least so far) based on the rate of feeder mix usage. I think the oriole count is about the same as last year.

Almost June

Update on the 'lbb' or little brown birds raising a brood in the bluebird box. The breakthrough came while browsing our local native plant nursery website (www.laspilitas.com). Since they cater to creating natural settings in landscaping, their site suggests plant types to lure birds and butterflies and has a nice section on local birds. There near the bottom - a photo matching the squatters, House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). Just about the same size as most of the hummingbirds and about as energetic. With just a quick glance, they could be mistaken for a mouse as a frequent behavior is running along the ground and hopping between low branches of shrubs in search of insects. Here is one of the parents coming out after dropping off a bug.

Incoming food! one less bug in the yard or garden.

I am only seeing Anna's and Blackchin hummingbirds at the moment, they seem to be more resident. The Rufus and Caliope hummers are more migratory and thus have passed through heading north. They should be back toward the end of summer on their way south.

The orioles still the loud ones on the block, flying between the tops of the avocado trees next door and the pepper trees and the feeders. They are, as expected, very fond of the grape jelly in the converted feeder. Last year the orioles were few and far between by September so they should be hanging around for 3-4 more months before heading south and east.