Reflections from Crumbly Acres: eastern phoebe

Showing posts with label eastern phoebe. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 July 2026

Phoebes!

We had a good day Tuesday. Whipper snippered, (weed eater?) the garden. MiniFred liked the job I'd done and went into the garden to help after I was done. I cleaned the goldfish pond pump. It is overflowing!

The TV repair person arrived. Both Fred and Cinnamon weren't amused.

I washed a couple of floors. Mostly, I spent time on the back deck watching the birds. I am nearly recovered. As I sat, I watched a couple of black birds chasing the owl into the forest. Wow.

Phoebe loves to sit on the trailcams.

Incoming!

Here it is:

We watched as they sat on the electric cord and begged for food. At the end of this a different bird scared them off. I'm not quite sure what it was.

They moved off to the tree and sat on the stick.

We watched them in the sunshine. The wind was blowing, a storm was moving in. The family happily sat on this branch, begging momma and papa for lunch. I peeked out during our storm, and saw the three littles sitting there hoping for food. It was a big storm!

The hatchlings have a yellow line around their beaks. Maybe to help the parents aim for them!

⚡️ ⛈️ It was a heckuva storm. We had 40 mm (1.56") and I kept thinking about the little birdies! I have a gutter down pipe to fix, too. Non-mental note. We have many Hydro workers out there restoring power.

While we complain about the American administration, there are good Americans who respect us. Many of us have friends or family in America. We lost a pilot fighting fires in the U.S. Such a shame.

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Phoebe, robins and ONStorm

🐣 Critters

🐣PHOEBE – Phoebes have hatched May 28th. It looks like all 5 of them! They should fledge June 11th.

The first 🐣ROBIN was here as of Feb. 1st, in the snow and cold! They've nested and hatched: May 14. The robins fledged on Sunday, May 29, having hatched exactly 13 days ago. No eggs remained, I assume they hatched 3/3 eggs.

I anxiously await the Wood Ducks hatching. I did a quick check on them. May 29.

🍃 Invasive Spongy Moths🐛 <= my data!

We had a helicopter go over the nearby lake. It is always a bit creepy since I associate them with emergencies. I asked on Facebook, and they are spraying BTK on the caterpillars. I hope all our butterflies and caterpillars are safe here. They were up about an hour. Our LDD Spongy Moth caterpillars have mostly died off. After a couple of years they get hit by a naturally occuring virus.

helicopter from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Public notices describe BTK as harmless to people, and non-toxic to insects, birds, fish, mammals, and adult moths and butterflies. However, this is misleading. BTK is not species-specific and, if consumed, will result in mortality of any butterfly or moth larvae at the time it is sprayed. BTK has been sprayed in several extremely rare Ontario habitats, such as oak savannah, oak woodland and tall grass prairie — which means it can also negatively affect many rare moths and butterflies that use these habitats.

I was quite happy to be able to sit on our back deck in the 31 C. weather. There were flies, but no mosquitoes or blackflies. I've been using Skin-so-soft when I go out to do the lawn. That certainly helps. My left arm is covered in several blackfly bites, oozing little hives. Unlike mosquitoes, they land and immediately dig in. You just don't feel them.

There are ~5600 households with Ottawa Hydro still without power lo these 10 days. Some homes need to have individual repairs, as their neighbours are up, but they have household damage. What a mess it is. Ontario Hydro has about 7100 left to get reattached.

Monday, 16 May 2022

Bugs and birds!

Well, it is bug season. Blackflies, and mosquitoes. They are simply awful. As I walk through the forest, I see clouds of mosquitoes hovering on or near the ground, hiding from the wind. Blackflies need running water, and we've not got as many of those. Mosquitoes hatch in our frogpond.

Happily, this means returning birds. Phoebes have 5 eggs.

Purple finch and vireo, and oven bird!

I couldn't see the bird at all singing up in the trees, but played the videotape for BIRDnet: Ovenbird! Fortunately, I have a video of it from four years ago.

Ovenbird from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The house wren has been busy on the front deck! I was talking to Caitlin on the phone while filming, so I pasted a house wren song in the audio!

House Wren from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This is a bluebird nesting box, and it has been lonely for tenants. They seem to have made a decision.

Setting the videocamera on the tripod, I spliced together the best video clips. They keep shoving sticks in. This prevent other bigger birds from getting in.

house wren 2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Remember my bird feeder pole disaster? I have proof. This camera defaults to 1/1/2020 and 12 p.m. every time I replace the batteries. I began to reset it, but the mosquitoes are simply awful.