I checked on the baby birds yesterday and today. This little birdie, desparately crying out for food, was born sometime before yesterday evening. I don’t know much about birds so I don’t know why the other egg hasn’t hatched yet, nor do I know what happened to the other two eggs in this nest. I checked on the ground below and didn’t see any eggs or egg shells.
I do know that at least the mama bird has had some very traumatic experiences in the last week, well beyond any nervousness caused by me getting up close and taking a few pictures.
Her nest is precariously perched in a ‘Miss Kim’ Lilac beside my house. Last Thursday, a large crew of roofers spent an amazingly short three hours stripping off all the old shingles and putting on a new roof. I was home when they did it and they were quite loud, quite quick and I’m sure at the speed that the SIXTEEN roofers worked, shingles were flying everywhere. Mama bird must have been quite distraught.
Then on Monday, another crew came and took off all the gutters and put on new gutters. They must have come quite close to this nest at one time when they removed and installed the gutters on that side of the house.
In a way, it’s amazing the nest didn’t fall out of the lilac.
I just hope mama bird wasn’t totally traumatized by all of these events and is coming back to feed this baby bird and that the other egg hatches soon.
While all this activity is taking place on the west side of the house, on the east side of the house some summer flowers are starting to bloom.
Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)
Mine is a passalong from someone along the way. I have coneflowers in several different places because they self sow. No one has just ONE coneflower plant in their garden, it just doesn’t happen. And gardening friends don’t let other gardening friends buy common coneflower plants, when it is so easy to share seedlings.
Tiger or Ditch Lily (Hemerocallis fulva)
Also a passalong, the only way to get more of these is to dig and divide them. They are commonly sterile, not producing any viable seed. It’s amazing to think how much these spread through the ditches out in the country, without viable seed. This usually will bloom for just a few weeks and then it is pretty much just leaves the rest of the time.
It’s got that “open mouth” look like that little bird. I know the birdie is crying out for food, what would this flower want?
Poor little baby bird. Hopefully the mama bird will be back real soon.
Love this post, Carol, the baby bird and the ditch lily do have some of the same characteristics!
The other egg may hatch a day later so all is not lost (yet). As for the missing eggs, some other bird could be the culprit. I’ve watched magpies take realistic-looking fake eggs from decorative nests on my back porch and fly away with them. Which reminds me that only one in five baby birds live to adulthood, and they’ve got to overcome the hurdle of hatching first!
That lily is crying out for us to admire it, which, thanks to you, we’ve done.
Hopefully mama bird is still feeding baby! Birds have a tough start. We saw a juvenile cardinal fledging yesterday morning, looking baffled and nervous as can be. So cute, but I couldn’t help worrying about him.
The flower pics are great. . . neither my echinacea or tiger lilies are blooming quite yet ~ I can’t wait!
Carol, you could dig up some worms and feed baby bird yourself. Of course mama might not like it. By the way, what kind is it, or can you tell yet?
I hope mama bird isn’t too freaked out. I was going to say the same thing lostroses said about the missing eggs…most likely another type of bird stole them.
My echinacea is just about to start blooming, and I have lots of lilies in bud right now. Hopefully it’ll all be gorgeous in time for Bloom Day 🙂
Hi again, Carol
I liked the Lily photo. Yes, so like the open mouth of the hungry chick I agree.
Let’s hope the parents come back and feed the chick. It can be hard sometimes for them to find food and the young chicks need lots of it to grow and the rate they do! Fingers crossed it fledges okay.
The chick is a robin isn’t it? Our European robin is quite different from yours – I have photos of it on my post ‘Bring a smile’. I’d be very interested in seeing pictures of the robins that visit your garden 🙂
Oh, poor baby. I have never seen such a photo showing such total helplessness.
Please let us know if the baby bird is ok.
I have seen more dead baby birds this year than any other I can remember.
Hi, I’m a visitor from Sweden! (I didn’t have enough to do with swedish blogs… 🙂 )
The baby bird was so sweet… We’ve had a couple of birds called Talgoxe (I don’t know what they’re called in english…) building a nest at our house. Today the baby birds left the nest and I already miss the sound of them…
You’re welcome to visit my blog. Perhaps you can enjoy the photos even though I guess you won’t understand what I write… 🙂
All, I checked on the baby bird late this afternoon and it is still there, still crying out for food. I can only assume, given the hot and windy conditions yesterday and today, that the birdie is getting fed by the Mama Bird. I believe, based on a comment someone made on the picture of the eggs, that it is a house wren of some kind.
Calling the baby bird “it” and “birdie” doesn’t seem quite right. So, hereafter, I’ve chosen the original name of “Lily” because of the resemblance to the lily in this post.
The other egg still has not hatched, by the way.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
bird eggs will hatch every other day for the most part, in the order they were laid 🙂
You’re not going to believe this but in my area echinacea doesn’t bloom until August or even later. And it doesn’t spread because it never gets cold enough in the winter to satisfy the seeds’ complex germination requirements (either that or it just rains too much, I’m not sure)
Poor little birdie, all by it’s lonesome. I suppose it just means that Mama will feed it more and it has a better chance of growing up briiger and stronger. Cute pic of it.
Hi, dont suppose you could tell me what kind of bird this little bird is? I have found one that looks exactly the same. I think it was stolen from its nest because I found it on the floor. So I am trying to look after it but dont know what to feed it. Thanks