Backyard Birdwatch Day 13: WOW!

Time: 7:07-7:27 a.m.

Weather Report: Fair, 69°F, 82% Humidity, Winds: Calm; feels like 69°F.

Location: The backyard of my home in the upstate New York City of Rochester. (See map at the bottom of the left column for spacial reference.)

Bird Species/Markings/Features:--1 female American Robin (AR), 1 Northern Cardinal (NC), 2 House Sparrows (HS).

Sights/Sounds/Activities: A fair amount of aviary chatter is audible. The ground was very wet, as a results of a record rainfall (3.3"!) two days prior. The invasive ground cover which has been choking my lawn is getting even larger. By the time we return from our weekend sojourn to Tupper Lake, I can't image how overgrown it may be.

Notes: Having been purposely absent from my "post" the last few days, it seems as though much has changed and there were many new observations to be made. I will present these in numerical/bullet form for easier organization:

a.) While intially AR1 (Birdie) was not in her nest, she did return and appeared to be dropping material into the nest and standing on the adjacent gutter rather than inside the cup nest. This is completely new behavior for AR1! I begin to suspect that maybe her eggs have hatched!



b.) AR1 flies back and forth from her nest to the Hub 1 tree, to the neighbors yard and back, taking roughly the same route 2-3 times. After close observation, it occurs to me that AR1's coloring seems a little off from some angles.

c.)The bird that I suspect is AR1 lands on top of the house gutter above the nest rather than beside the nest... again, a completely new behvaior for AR1.

d.) DUH! It seems that there are two American Robins tending to the nest and I make a few attemtps at taking a rather poor picture depicting both ARs on the gutter joint next to the nest looking in. AR1 (female) and AR2 (male) are both looking into the nest and AR1 has material in hr beak she appears to be dropping in.

The head to the left and the tail to the right of the gutter belong to two different birds--trust me, they do!

e.) The backyard is also visited by a Northern Cardinal this morning. The NC dropped from the neighbor's tree onto the fence, hopping around within the dying vine before flitting away. It was great to see a different type of bird stop by to visit. The NC actually landed about two feet from AR2 so I attempted (unsuccessfully) to get a pic of the two together.



Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!