I got some feathers yesterday....

18 years ago

just to see what the TRES would do. OMG I had the most fun with them ever!! It was so cool to throw a feather in the air and watch the Swallow scoop it up in flight! They came so close to me too it was amazing. I even got to show my daughter and her friend. Oh and we now have six TRES nests on our property! They all now have nice warm feathers to line their nests too, I shared with all of them. LOL! Only two of our nests have eggs so far, one with six and one with five. Down at the park as of yesterday we have one TRES nest with one egg and two Blues nests with 5 eggs each. Oh and I found one of my nestboxes that line a field filled with sticks!! Ugh, never saw that before. I have been taking sticks out of the old chickadee house every other day but there aren't usually that many sticks in it. This other one was half full of sticks, so I guess I know what a dummy nests looks like now, huh. They better leave the TRES alone!!

Donna

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Comments (9)

trailerparkbirds
18 years ago
That's pretty neat Donna, It's probably one of the few birds you could do that with, if we could do that with Blue birds I'm sure there are a few devoted Bluebirds that would risk their health out in the cold helping the Bluebirds build there nests. ;-)
Keith
anita55
18 years ago
Hi Donna, we had a discussion some years ago about throwing feathers up and watching the swallows catch them. Many people enjoy doing that. Someone ( I don't remember who ) said that this is not a good thing to do (bummer) because it makes the swallows expend precious energy that they need for nesting. Does anybody remember that thread? Was it determined in the end if this is not a good thing to do? Somebody with a better memory than I might remember.
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Alright, I kept the stems moist, first and foremost. I wapped them in wet paper towels until I got home, then I put them right into water. I enjoyed the blooms for a few days while I waited. I hydrated a Jiffy*7 peat pellet and placed about a half inche of perlite in the bottom of a three-inch pot. I trimmed off the flowering top, recut the stem under water and stripped off the bottom set of leaves. I scored the end of the stem, dipped it in rooting powder, shaking off te excess. The cutting went into the peat pellet, and I sqeezed the peat pellet tight around the end of the cutting. Then the cutting and pellet went into the pot on top of the perlite, then I filled up arond the peat pellet with more perlite, to the top of the pellet. Karl mists his with a timer, I kept mine in heavy but dappled shade on a shallow plate. (The plate allowed me to water the cuttings from the bottom. As long as the perlite and peat don't dry out, the water gets absorbed up into the asembly.) I made sure and never let the cuttings dry out, or let them tip over hard. They lost all their old leaves, then began growing new ones. When the new roots start poking out the bottom of the pot, the whole peat pellet is ready to be transplanted into a bigger pot. The peat "pellet" (really more of a blob of peat by now,) keeps the brand new feeder roots from breaking off and killing the fragile new cutting during transplanting. You still want to be very careful. Voila! A healthy measure of grace really helped, too, ha ha! Oh yeah, I put them in gradually more sun as they grew their new leaves. I moved them behind some bigger bands that face east, and this way they got dappled sun, then about an hour or two of "straight" sun, then shade until the next day.
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dzyg
Original Author
18 years ago
Hmm Anita. When I did this yesterday they swooped up the feathers, made a big swoop around the nestbox and took them inside. They didn't really play with them but they seemed to enjoy getting them, they all went into the nestboxes pretty quickly.

I would be interested to hear what others think about doing this. I actually only did this cause someone, on the BW Forum mentioned doing it.

Donna
abbybirds
18 years ago
anita, this may just be my opinion, but i would like to think that the tree swallows know what is good for them or not, and they probably just appreciate the help. if anything i would think it would make it easier for them to make such a 'valuable' resource so readily available to them! :)

it must be so interesting to see those perky little swallows taking those feathers!
erictammy
18 years ago
I've hosted tree swallows for 4 years and they don't play the feather game with me!! I think one took one feather once..and that was it. I just look silly, out in the backyard throwing feathers up in the air.
Tammy
bbcathy
18 years ago
Donna isn't that fun?!!! I did it last year and had a ball with them. Mine will even take nesting material I put out. I have a really goofy (but tame) female right now. Maybe I'll explain that later.
Cathy
dzyg
Original Author
18 years ago
LOL Tammy! I just decided to try after seeing the TRES nest at the park was full of feathers and the ones here weren't. OMG they loved them. I was suprised how quickly they swooped over to get them. Now all seven nests are lined with feathers. LOL!

Cathy, I would love to hear about your goofy tame TRES. Mine all let me get really close to them. I talk to them as I walk up too. I swear sometimes they would let me reach out and touch them but I have never tried.

Donna
erictammy
18 years ago
I have two nests with feathers and two without. I wonder if they will add feathers after they've laid..I bet not.
Tammy
anita55
18 years ago
So nobody remembers the thread I was talking about? I wonder if the archives go back that far. I'll take a look. I've put feathers out myself but I never had birds take them in the air.

A

I got some feathers yesterday....

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trailerparkbirds

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I got some feathers yesterday....

Comments (9)

trailerparkbirds

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