Seven Baby Chickadee Eggs

The chickadees have finally laid their eggs! There are seven eggs even though you can only see six of them in this picture. See the previous post to see the close up picture of the chickadee parent . . . who has only one leg.

A Good Birding Day

Saturday, great weather . . . Sunday, not great.

However, through the rain, the birds come to get their snacks.

A junco getting a drink.

"Say cheese!"

This is my good side . . .

No, this is my good side!

And the best for last . . . this is a chickadee I have seen for the last several weeks. It has only one leg and it is the female (I think) for the nesting pair of chickadees that is building the nest in the birdhouse on my deck. Chick on the picture for a close up. And, no, she is not just sitting on one leg.

It's official . . .

The builder of the new birdhouse nest is a . . . chickadee! (again)
I was looking forward to another specie of bird, but I am just happy I will get to watch the babies hatch and grow. Stay tuned for more pictures. No eggs yet.

Evolution of a bird nest

Last year I had a family of chickadees living in a bird house on my deck.
This was the inside of the nest after the babies had fledged. Note: one unhatched egg.


This spring I decided I should empty the nest material, there was at least 5 inches of old nesting material. I took the bird house down and opened it up and it was totally and completely empty!
Some very eager bird was already house keeping. All that nesting material was gone!

The next day I snapped this picture: a thin layer of fresh green moss.

day 2: poly-fill from someones lawn chair cushion.

day three: more poly-fill and some dryer lint

day four: more lint (note pink lint) and some larger pieces of poly-fill

day five: moss, poly-fill, dryer lint and animal hair

day six: outside view with some building insulation on the outside of the entrance hole.



day six: building insulation



day seven: a lot more animal hair, looks like raccoon

So, all in all these little birds have been busy. I don't know if they are chickadees again or if it is another variety of bird, time will tell: stay tuned . . .

Hatched Tadpoles

Tadpoles developing in their cases.

One free swimming tadpole and one ready to hatch!

Free swimming, two days after hatching. Note the external gills.

The kids are thrilled to see them swimming and growing. So far, I have counted (roughly) 13 swimming tadpoles. They are hard to see, and they like to hide, this is a very rough count.
Maybe we will end up with more than 2 fully developed frogs, which is what we had last year.

Day 5 still in eggs cases

I am amazed the eggs transformed so quickly (over the weekend).

Last year we are not able to see inside the cases because they were

covered with a fine layer of pond scum -

so watching the prehatching development was difficult.

For those of you who can't yet tell the difference

here is the retrevial photo:

Frogs . . . again

I know you all have been holding your breath in anticipation - you can all breathe a sigh of relief now . . . I have frog eggs again! For those of you who didn't get to see the postings from last spring - I found frog eggs and had them in my classroom for the students to view. They were such a huge hit (with students in my class as well as school wide). I decided that tadpoles/frogs will be an ongoing part of each spring; provided I can find eggs.

This spring it was necessary to wade into the "less than clean" water to retrieve the little buggers. Let's just say that I think I will be looking into buying a pair of boots for next frog season!
Enjoy the photos, click on them for close up viewing.

-A Pillsbury frosting container with 3 egg cases.

-Looking down into the frog habitat.Can you see the egg cases? No?!

-How about a close up.

-And an extra close, close up.