Bird nests galore!
Every year we have a family of orchard orioles in our front oak tree. This year I got a good picture of the nest with the fledgies on it. They make a hanging nest and the babies were bright yellow. Not the best camoflague. They fledged this week and are now hanging out in the neighbor's big oak tree safely away from the cats.
A prothonotary warbler moved into one of our nest boxes. You can see her sitting by the box with moss in her beak. The nest is made mostly of green moss. Soft, I guess! I think she is incubating now.
While watching the orioles I had noticed a pair of blue-gray gnatcatchers hanging around. I finally found their nest in a crepe myrtle right near the orioles' oak tree. It is gorgeous. The outside is papered entirely with lichens held on with spider webs. It's quite a feat of engineering. They have four babies that I expect to fledge any day. You can see dad gnatcatcher looking at the camera. They are tiny birds, smaller than a chickadee. The nest is also tiny.
