[Mnbird] Young'uns

[Brian and Cindy Drill]

Happy Sunday to all.  I don't know why I rarely associate the end of 
July with young birds, but there have been so many in the past couple of 
weeks.

Yesterday our second nest of robins fledged from the honeysuckle 
trellis.  We almost missed the start of this brood, since it came about 
with far less fanfare than the original construction efforts of the 
first.  The first nest produced 4, and the second 3 youngsters.  The 
last to leave spent half the day perched on the carport eaves, ignoring 
his parents pleas to move on--somewhere, anywhere.

Early last week, we were suddenly inundated with chipping sparrows and 
their ungainly foster children (suspiciously resembling cowbirds) around 
the back feeder in particular.  Much to my delight, after having seen 
only 2 orioles this year during early migration, 3 young ones suddenly 
began spending time in our back yard.  I quickly replaced my oriole 
feeders, but the new guys didn't seem to care--they were all about the 
birdbath.  Our little male hummingbird was pretty tickled with the 
orange nectar feeder, however, and stopped using the other hummingbird 
feeders for a while.  I haven't seen the orioles this week at all.

Now there are numerous house finch families to fill the void, along with 
young chickadees.  A trio of fuzzy downy woodpeckers played King of the 
Hill with the front bird feeder.  A pair of cardinals with two offspring 
arrived in the front yard; to all appearances the adults were vigorously 
convincing the young that they were ready for an empty nest. Goldfinches 
seem to not be interested in thistle this summer, but are emptying the 
sunflower feeder as fast as I can fill it.

A small group of waxwings arrived while I was in the yard this past 
week.  They grouped in the maple tree, and one flew into the magnolia 
over the pond and whistled to the others.  When no one came to join it, 
it flew back to the maple and tried to regroup them, and then back over 
the pond.  After more whistling back and forth, the one gave up and the 
entire group moved on.  Proof, I guess, that you can lead a flock to 
water, but you can't make them drink.

Finally, our first RB grosbeak of the year--a young male has begun to 
visit us.  My husband is disappointed to only see him in his juvenile 
plumage, but I hope he remembers where he visited and maybe comes back 
next year all grown up.

Oh, and my daughter and I were thrilled to see indigo buntings last week 
on a walk in a local park--2 males, sitting on the trail and singing 
their little hearts out.  Happy birding to all, Cindy in North Mankato



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