Randy,

Three batches of baby birds! Cool! Oddly, we haven't had any phoebes this year at all, which is not surprising, I guess, in a year when EVERYTHING has been odd.

The rest of the bird population seems fairly normal, although we have more hummingbirds than usual and fewer bluebirds.

We have had rufous hummingbirds in addition to the usual ruby-throated ones too. We often see rufous (and black-chinned hummers) during the migration only, but this year, the rufous have stuck around.

Like you, we have a huge wasp population as well as tons of ants AND grasshoppers. I think this is the worst grasshopper year in 6 or 8 years. What's missing? No Colorado Potato Beetles (not that I'm complaining), no aphids, and spider mites only on the verbena bonariensis.

TONS of brown stinkbugs and green stinkbugs, and they arrived in May instead of July. They're obviously my biggest garden problem.

We're raising 17 keats (baby guineas) bought at the feed store to go with our three surviving males from our original batch of 24 almost a decade ago. Since keats generally don't hatch until late May or early June, these are still really small and we had to chase a 7' long snake out of the henhouse last night. Most years we lose all our keats to the darned snakes and I am determined not to let that happen this year.

That's the bird and bug report here.

Dawn

I don't see phoebes here after the spring, but we have dozens at the feeder in Feb.

Our bluebirds are on their third batch also. I do not know if they have hatched yet. After the first two batches, I removed the nest from the box, and they built new ones and started laying within 2 weeks of the first ones leaving. I kind of thought that was a bad sign regarding the earlier ones living very long. From my observation over time, I was thinking the parents stayed with the little ones for at least a week or two after they leave the nest.

I have had chickadees hatch a couple of batches in two other boxes, and one bird I can't identify in the last one. A few weeks ago I saw a crow land on a box and twist its head down to look in the box. I don't think it could get them through the small hole, though.

It's been fun to watch them, but I'd really like to see some leave and know they survived.

A pair of wrens have decided to raise young in an old pot sitting on a shelf in my garage. Boy, they are busy.

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randy

Randy, now I think I know what the third bird is in my nest box. Do these wrens use boxes sometimes?

I guess you have to leave your garage a bit all the time now?

Scott,

Wrens use anything and everything. Think I remember someone telling me a pair used a welding glove hanging on a wall peg. They come and go regularly when I'm in the garage. One will fuss if I'm a few feet from the nest, the other acts like I'm not there.

Are you sure you are seeing phoebes at your feeder? Maybe finches instead? Phoebes are flycatchers. They don't congregate in those kind of numbers that I know of. And almost all of them winter further south than where I live. I did have one immature male stay over the winter here last year for the first time.

randy

I meant to type "leave your garage OPEN a bit all of the time now".

I thought my birds were phoebes based on my reference book. The ones I think are phoebes are usually in large numbers in February, but some in Jan and early March also. I'll have to get my book back from my parents and take another look. These birds are not as leary of me as most other birds.