Interesting Fact of The Day: Brown Thrasher

In our vineyard at the Alson Smith Agricultural Research and Extension Center I found a Brown Thrasher nest week! I know a little bit about this bird, just the basics, like its size and feeding habits! Last year at my girlfriends house I found a nest of baby Thrashers! The nest was tipping over and the babies were hanging on by a thread! My girlfriend and I found out the hard way how aggressive the parents could be! It took about an a hour to deal with the parents and to fix the nest! The nest lasted until they fledged! Thanks goodness! The interesting fact for the day will make this experience with the Brown Thrasher a reality for you readers!

FACT: The parents are aggressive defenders of their nesting site and have been known to strike humans, cats, and dogs with no fear! Been known to draw blood with their powerful jab! YIKES!

Enjoy The Rainy Day!

Interesting Fact of The Day: Barn Swallow

I was mowing today and I always find it fascinating when your mowing and a barn swallow trails the mower as you cut the grass! They are very aerodynamic and shifty while catching their prey! I dont have a cool story to share today but I feel when I dont have anything to share I will share a interesting fact of a certain bird species! Today it's the barn swallow!

-FACT: When building their mud nest, both the male and female make up to 1000 trips back and forth while preparing their nest!

Enjoy This Beautiful Day!

Bluebirds Vs Tree Swallows!

In my whole life of studying birds and bluebirds I have never seen something as ironic as this story! I went to work on Monday morning after my first brood of Bluebirds had fledged their nestbox and was checking both boxes to see if there were any signs of new nesting materials in the box! I checked the first one and there was some nesting material, I checked the second one and I found a tree swallow in the box! I decided to grab its tail thinking it would react in some manner, but I found it to be limp and dead, strange! After realizing the bird was dead I observed it's body and I found lacerations all over its head! I'm assuming that the Tree Swallow was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the male Eastern Bluebird didnt want the male Tree Swallow in his territory! I just have never seen such a behavior! So as I blog this if anyone cares to comment on this issue, I'll be interested to hear some input!

Welcome Birders!

Welcome to my blog, birders if you have any questions, more than likely I have an answer!