[luvmy4brats]

We are all very excited in my house. Yesterday, we discovered a Killdeer nesting alongside the road across from our driveway. She has 4 eggs. It took me a bit of research to discover what kind of bird it was.

See how close to the road she is? I don't have a close-up, the zoom isn't working. We put up signs this morning so people would be careful around the nest. Hopefully my neighbor (who's only there on weekends) won't mind.

We also found a nest in the tree in our front yard. There were no eggs and we didn't know what kind of bird had made the nest. Well, this morning, I saw the bird and had an idea of what it may be (I know next to nothing about birds). When she flew off, I grabbed the step stool and the camera to see if I could get a picture of inside the nest (I'm too short to see in it) sure enough, I got the picture and it was exactly what I was expecting.

A beautiful Robin egg

Last year we had a pair of House Finches build 2 seperate nests in my hanging planters on my front porch. Shortly after the first eggs hatched, they built the nest in the 2nd planter and we had another set of eggs from the same pair. It was pretty cool. I haven't put the planters out yet this year, but hopefully they'll return. The kids really enjoyed watching the birds from the front window. The male Finch was quite chatty and fun to watch as well.

 

[MAGreen]

Birds are do much fun! We had a hummingbird nest right outside the bedroom window, close enough I could have reached out and touched it. I loved watching the eggs hatch and grow, but it was even more fun to see my daughter, who was only 3 then, get to see the babies grow and learn to to fly. She wanted to keep them!

 

[Cowgirl]

I know you homeschool your kids...what a wonderful teaching opportunity!

 

[vsch]

I love to feed and watch the birds, especially in the spring when something new happens to stop at the feeder. here is a favorite picture of mine from my backyard.

 

[mlewis78]

I loved that story.  I am enjoying listening to birds singing outside my window today over the past 3 hours.  They are producing beautiful songs.

 

[Avalon3]

Last year we had a pair of House Finches build 2 seperate nests in my hanging planters on my front porch. Shortly after the first eggs hatched, they built the nest in the 2nd planter and we had another set of eggs from the same pair. It was pretty cool. I haven't put the planters out yet this year, but hopefully they'll return. The kids really enjoyed watching the birds from the front window. The male Finch was quite chatty and fun to watch as well.

A friend of mine told me this morning she has a purple finch nest in her spring wreath on the front door. I'll post pictures when she sends them to me. I love that Robin's egg blue!

It's great to watch nature up close!

 

[Avalon3]

Birds are do much fun! We had a hummingbird nest right outside the bedroom window, close enough I could have reached out and touched it. I loved watching the eggs hatch and grow, but it was even more fun to see my daughter, who was only 3 then, get to see the babies grow and learn to to fly. She wanted to keep them!

Here's a livestream web cam with one hummingbird baby. Great quality cam in color.

http://cam.dellwo.com/

 

[Avalon3]

I love to feed and watch the birds, especially in the spring when something new happens to stop at the feeder. here is a favorite picture of mine from my backyard.

Gorgeous picture and the orioles do like their oranges!

 

[Rasputina]

Beautiful pictures!

 

[Neekeebee]

We've been putting out bird seeds for a couple of years now.  Every year, we get a pair of mourning doves that hang out and feed on birdseed we leave in the planters.  They are very calm and quite cute.  Even the squirrels don't faze them.  Yesterday, Hubby grabbed the zoom lens and took pix of one of the doves sleeping while perched on the edge of the planter. 

We also get these brown birds with long tails (towhees?  cowbirds?) who love to take bird baths.  I leave out a simple shallow dish and they splash water everywhere.  It's a lot of fun to watch.

This year, for the first time, we are getting loads of finches to hang out as well.  Not sure why they never discovered the stash before.

Hubby is installing the humming bird feeder as I type.  I've been watching the hummer visit a couple of times a day to check out what the fuss is about...he always gravitates toward the red patio umbrella, then takes off again.

We used to get a pair of blue scrub jays too.  Then they brought their baby--all downy feathers;his name was "Baby Blue"--and he learned to sit outside the patio door and peer in until he got his peanuts.  One day last Sept., they all stopped coming, and I haven't seen any scrub jays in the neighborhood since. 

N

 

[Cowgirl]

Where ever we live we put out thistle for the yellow finches and it amazes me how they find it.  I thought for sure they wouldn't find it here in Arizona.  The neighbors said they never saw them before we put out the thistle. We also attract hummingbirds but in Arizona they are really big.  Back East they were smaller and faster.

 

[Dori]

Photo taken of kildeer in my backyard. I have since fenced, planted grass and flowers and 2 trees. Kildeer love gravelly rocky ground to lay their eggs. My kildeer eggs never hatched. Something must have gotten them. I would take a step, then another photo, etc. Kept the last one I was able to get. Notice egg in the background.

ps I had totally forgotten how to put a photo in a post but worked my way through it.
Go Me!

 

[Carol Hanrahan]

I better go fill my hummingbird feeders!

 

[Carol Hanrahan]

And my sunflower feeder

 

[Carol Hanrahan]

and my thistle feeder

 

[luvmy4brats]

Dori, I can't get that close to this one. She starts hollering when we get within about 15 feet.

There are some great pictures here. Thank you for posting them. I look forward to seeing more.

We have a bird feeder in the front yard. We mainly get Grackles at it and they seem to chase off the other birds. They also eat the food we put out for the dogs in the back.

 

[Dori]

My new digital camera has a good zoom feature.  I know this because my 9  yr old great nephew showed me how to do it.   He took photos inside of a large lego star wars thing that he built.  oops off topic.  Maybe the lego set had a bird in it.

 

[Sailor]

Aww, what beautiful birds, I love pictures of them.

Thank you for sharing,

Sailor

 

[luvmy4brats]

My new digital camera has a good zoom feature. I know this because my 9 yr old great nephew showed me how to do it. He took photos inside of a large lego star wars thing that he built. oops off topic. Maybe the lego set had a bird in it.

My new digital camera HAD a great zoom feature...until my children got ahold of it. I'm not sure which one it was. I'm being told it was Not Me or I Don't Know <sigh> those two do everything...Monsters.

If he's putting birds in his Lego creations, you might have some issues with him later

 

[Dori]

I know we have parrots from the pirate ships we built.