The Daily Bucket is a place where we post and exchange our observations about what is happening in the natural world in our neighborhood. Each note about the bugs, buds, and birds around us is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns of nature that are quietly unwinding around us.
We are fortunate to have a lot of Phoebes in our area. I can't remember a year that we haven't had at least one pair nesting somewhere on the place. As I write this we have three active nests within a hundred yards of the back porch. One is in our barn, one is in a small, very old house, that sits just back of the barn and that we use as a storage shed for a lot of old junk, and the other nest is on the front of our chicken house, just up under the eave. The barn and the old house have been used for years by Phoebes but the chicken house nest is a new one and I like it best because my comfy old chair here on the back porch provides me with a front row seat to all the coming and goings of the Phoebe family.
When I first saw the birds flying up under the eave with bits of moss and grass it was obvious what they were up to and I thought it would be cool to photograph the process and share it with the rest of you. So I went out once each day and took a pic of that days progress.
I saw that no buckets were scheduled for today so thought this would be a good time to throw this out there. No dramatic action photos or beautiful scenic vistas but some of you may find the process interesting.
It's raining here in mid Missouri today and a chilly 48 degrees starting off the second half of April with a big change from the abnormally high temps we'd been getting the first half. So it seems kind of strange that yesterday afternoon the first Carolina Wren and the first Ruby Throated Hummingbird showed up in the backyard. They both may be regretting that right about now as they probably sit hunkered down somewhere out there on this cold,rainy, April morning. Go figure........
So tell us where your stomping grounds are and what Mother Nature is up to there.
Day one.
Day two.
Day three
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day8
The nest sat idle for the next three days and I never saw the Phoebes near it. Then when I was beginning to worry that they had abandoned the nest I saw them sitting on the chicken house roof. Later that day I went out to see if there were any changes but could see none. I put my ladder up and climbed up to check inside the nest . The nest , like all the Phoebe nests is very near the ceiling which prevents me from getting above it to actually look down inside. But I reached over the lip of the nest and could feel one egg which eased my worries. I guess the three days that the nest sat idle was the time it took for Mother Phoebe to start producing eggs.