Fat Berries and Birds

Another week of muggy days, heavy rain and some sunshine with swelling and ripening berries attracting juvenile birds learning their avian skills.

The Amelanchier berries are always early ripeners and have attracted the attentions of both American Robins and Cedar Waxwings this week … as you can see from the featured images on the right. We don’t begrudge any of our birds the fruits we grow … in fact, it would be pointless to do so as they almost always get to the trees and bushes before we do. Our sour cherry tree is already stripped before the cherries even started to go pink, let alone reach full ripeness; mind you, some of those have been snaffled by squirrels.

Young birds have been all over the place with juvenile Downy Woodpeckers, American Robins, a Purple Finch and Northern Cardinals being fed by their parents and a small flock of Chipping Sparrows following each other around for several days while they learn what food looks like.

Our gardening tasks are now switching over to maintenance mode as we attempt to control the weeds which are loving this cool and wet weather just as much as the plants we want to have with us. For all the rain, however, the newly planted winterberry bushes need a little watering as they are in the rain shadow of an old maple tree. Once they get their roots down they will be fine and they look like they have set new berries this week so a good show of red is assured for the start of winter and the birds that are staying with us.

A Hummingbird, looking just like a small jewel, was preening itself in one of the Amelanchiers after bathing itself in the large bird bird bath in Molly’s Dell.

A young Mourning Dove, somewhat scruffy and teenagerish, missed its landing on the seed feeders and crashed onto the squirrel baffle where it sat for a while looking confused.

A Carolina Wren arrived to check the feeders … it, too, had that just out of the nest look to it and so we are hoping this is an indication of “our” Wrens having been successful nesters somewhere in the garden or nearby.