Tag Archives: Mourning Dove

Monthly Journal – July, 2016

July has been full of birds. We think our yard has never been as full of birds as this past month.  A cake of suet lasts about a day and a half and we’re filling large feeders every 4 days. Catbirds are everywhere, and we are getting up at sunrise to beat them and the robins to our ripening figs.

Birds are still fledging, and some bird houses up and down the street and on the Nature Trail are hosting their third brood of this season.  Two of the photos below, shot through our window, are of a baby catbird who wasn’t quite quite ready to fly and wound up in boxwood for a few hours.  His parents continued to feed him and eventually he got his wings and left.

What’s missing are butterflies and dragonflies.  They were everywhere this time last year and this year we are seeing very few.  Maybe the birds are eating the larvae.  We are hoping that mosquito spraying is not involved in their disappearance.

The last photo is of the newly resurfaced Nature Trail.  If you are in the neighborhood, you should go see it.

Monthly Journal – March, 2016

Mild weather continued in March.  It actually felt like Spring as we passed the first official day of the season.  Last month we told you we heard frogs.  This month we’ve been hearing them more and seeing them, as well as lots of tadpoles.

March’s photos include nesting birds, native bees and two butterfly species: Sulfur and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.  Also both of our native honeysuckle vines are blooming coinciding with the arrival of hummingbirds.  So be on the lookout.

As you can see below, the Cooper’s Hawks are still here.  This one had just caught a Mourning Dove.