The Barn Swallows had me fooled!

Text and photos © 2015 Adele Wilson, author of Bonding with the Barn Swallows

This past spring, on April 22^nd to be exact, our Barn Swallows returned from their distant wintering quarters in Central and South America.  I saw only five of them that day, and their photo appears below.  I was concerned that there were only five, significantly fewer than during previous years.

I eagerly anticipated the nesting season that was about to commence.  If there were only five Barn Swallows showing up this year, we certainly needed their population number to increase.  As the days went by, however, I was disappointed that I could not find any Barn Swallow nests on this property.  Memories of Barn Swallows nesting on my porch in 2011 and 2012 as described in my book seemed distant and vague.  Besides, who was going to catch all the flying insects this summer?  Many flying insects are regarded as pests by humans, and Barn Swallows have been valued for centuries as natural forms of pest control.

Barn Swallows are adorable birds.  They are amazingly intelligent, agile, and comfortable in the presence of humans, at least in the presence of humans who do not threaten them.  What I like most about Barn Swallows, however, is their relatively egalitarian social structure as compared with many other songbirds.  In the Barn Swallow species, both the male and female build their nest and feed their young.  The male even helps incubate the eggs.  

As the days passed, I began seeing Barn Swallows swooping under the eave of the lower corner of the building where I live.  In fact, the swallows would periodically swoop at me during the mornings when I was in the yard refilling the bird feeders on the nearby tree.

Why were the swallows swooping at me, and what were they trying to protect?  I walked around the building and inspected all of its eaves, searching for Barn Swallow nests.  The photo on the right shows what a typical Barn Swallow nest looks like.  After thoroughly inspecting all four walls of the building, however, I did not find any nests. I then decided to investigate the corner of the building where I had seen the swallows swooping.

I ventured under the eave and carefully inspected the wall and the ceiling of the overhang, but saw no trace of a Barn Swallow nest, or at least the type of cup-shaped nest that Barn Swallows build.  What I did see, however, intrigued me to no end.

A drainage pipe protrudes from the lower back wall of the building.  I discovered that the top of the pipe, which is at a height of about eight feet (almost 2.5 meters) from the ground, was covered with mud and straw.  The inside pipe perimeter also seemed to be lined with mud and straw, leaving an opening in the center of the pipe.  To the above left is a photo of the pipe that I took on May 10^th.

Can Barn Swallows nest inside a pipe?  No, that seemed impossible.  The pipe would have to lead to an open space inside the building where they could build a nest.

Each day I kept wondering if a nest was being built on top of the pipe.  From my second-story porch, I was unable to see the pipe itself, which protrudes from lower level of my building and is obscured by the roof that overhangs it.  

The photo to the right shows the view from my porch as I am looking toward the location of the pipe.  The red arrow points to the location where the pipe is hidden underneath the eave.  Therefore, in order to check the pipe each day, I had to venture down the stairs of my porch and then turn back toward the building.  Once I approached the overhang, I could see the pipe.

A few weeks later, I decided to be a bit more proactive.  Just in case the swallows were in the process of building a nest above the pipe, I fabricated a ledge on which they could build it.  I took a small rectangle of corrugated cardboard and covered it with duct tape.  I then attached the rectangle to the side and above the pipe, again with duct tape.  A little sloppy, but it was the best that I could do!  You can see in the photo at the above left, taken July 17th, that the swallows eventually applied a little mud to the ledge.

Early one morning, I approached the pipe to find out if a nest was being built on top of it.  To my surprise, three birds suddenly came flying out from under the eave and away from the building!  They flew out so quickly that I surmised that they must have been perching on the cardboard ledge I had affixed beside the top of the pipe.

After the three birds flew out and away from the eave, I ventured closer to the pipe.  Upon my inspection of it, I found nothing different … just a pipe covered with mud, the inside of the pipe lined with mud and straw, and a little mud on top of the ledge.

Intermittently over the next few weeks, as I watched from my porch, swallows were flying to and from that corner of the building.  One morning there were two swallows coming and going, each spending only a few seconds under the eave and then departing again.

This made me wonder if the swallows were arriving at the pipe with mud to build a nest on the duct-tape-covered ledge that I had set up.  But no, my checking of the ledge did not reveal any additional mud on top of it.

The swallow activity calmed down for a while, but a few weeks later, I noticed it again.  I began to do some Internet research on whether Barn Swallows ever nest inside a pipe.  The only reference I could find to such an activity was on a website forum where RV and camper owners were complaining that Barn Swallows were starting nests inside the exhaust pipes of their parked vehicles.  The comments indicated that the vehicle owners considered the swallows to be a nuisance.  To rid the swallows and their nests from the pipes, they would start their vehicle engines, causing the exhaust to blow the nesting material away.  Indeed, I found that the diameter of the drainage pipe on my building was approximately the size of the diameter of the exhaust pipe on my car.

On the morning of June 22nd, there had been a whole flock of swallows swooping toward the corner of the building and under the eave.  The swallows seemed to be intent upon raiding the area where the pipe was located.  Through binoculars, I observed that some of the birds seemed to be Cliff Swallows.

It made more sense to me that the pipe would be appropriate for a Cliff Swallow nest rather than a Barn Swallow nest, especially if the pipe led to a wider opening inside the building.  This is because Cliff Swallows build nests with small entrance holes and tunnels leading toward the inside of their nests.  A pipe, if it indeed led to a wider space, would seem to serve that purpose. 

To the right is a photo of a Cliff Swallow nest.  In fact, it is the nest on my porch that was originally built by Barn Swallows but modified by Cliff Swallows two years later.  The entrance hole is part of a passageway that leads to the more open part of the nest. 

Cliff Swallows, who usually nest in colonies, are known to raid their own nests.  In the Cliff Swallow species, there seems to be great competition for nests, supposedly because some Cliff Swallow nests are built so poorly that they end up being destroyed by harsh weather conditions.  Consequently, Cliff Swallows who have built a faulty nest are often forced to usurp the nests of other Cliff Swallows.

Another reason that Cliff Swallows highly value other Cliff Swallow nests is that they have a habit of removing an egg from their own nest and placing it into another nest.  Sometimes they will first remove an egg from the other nest first.  I have read that both the male and female Cliff Swallows engage in this type of activity.

Yet on most mornings, the birds flying around the pipe were Barn Swallows.  And on only one morning was there such a large number of birds flocking toward the corner of the building. 

As the summer progressed, I would sit on my porch each morning.  I continued to see a pair of Barn Swallows, one-by-one, visiting the area of the pipe.  Again, I could not see the pipe itself from my porch because it was obscured by the overhang (see previous photo). 

In the late afternoons and evenings I would again inspect the pipe, but it continued to look the same as it previously had, with no nest visible.  I never actually saw a bird fly in or out of the pipe.  In order to do so, I would have to approach the pipe so closely that it would have given the birds ample warning not enter or leave the pipe.

There were several swallows on the roof of my building on the morning of July 16^th, as shown in the photo below, which I took from my porch.  This is the upper roof of the building not shown in the photo, not the lower overhang under which the pipe is located.  Since this upper roof is near the same part of the building where the lower overhang and pipe are located, these birds could have fledged from the nest inside the pipe, assuming, of course, that there was indeed a nest inside the pipe!

The birds on the roof were definitely Barn Swallows, not Cliff Swallows.  One of them is shown in the photo to the right.  Although the breast color looks light, the lack of a white patch on the forehead shows it to be a Barn Swallow.  It is a juvenile, as shown by the continuous breast band.  Unlike European Barn Swallows, our Barn Swallow adults have "broken", or discontinuous breast bands.

On July 17^th, while I was sitting on the porch, a male Barn Swallow flew toward the corner of the building, but landed on the nearby fence when he saw me.  I was able to take a photo, which appears below.  The discontinuous breast band, along with the rich colors on the rest of his plumage, shows him to be an adult male.  He didn’t look too happy that I was in his presence!

On the morning of July 18^th, there were numerous swallow fledglings on the utility wire.  After observing them closely through binoculars, I noticed that some of them were Cliff Swallows!  The photo below shows a fledgling Cliff Swallow on the left.  The three birds to the Cliff Swallow’s right are fledgling Barn Swallows.

Where did all of these babies hatch?  Had they fledged from a nest on my building?  Or perhaps their parents had directed them to perch on that wire because the wire’s location gives a nice, wide view of our valley, enabling the fledglings to more easily spot their parents flying toward them to feed them.

Just eight days later, on July 26^th, there were even more swallows on the wire.  Four of them are shown in the photo below.

On August 1^st, I was out in my yard refilling the bird feeders on the tree.  A Barn Swallow came flying from the corner of the building and landed on the fence behind the tree.  He allowed me to photograph him, and the photo on the right proves him to have been an adult male.  He could have well have been the same male as in the previous photo taken on July 17^th, with the sunlight hitting his feathers differently.

On the morning of August 3^rd, I counted 13 swallows on the wires.  There was a group of seven on one wire and a group of six on an adjacent wire.  By observing the birds through binoculars, I surmised that they were all juveniles.  The photo to the left shows two of them.  These are both Barn Swallows.

I began to assume that Barn Swallows had indeed nested in the pipe earlier in the summer.  And perhaps there had been not just one, but two nestings – two broods of swallow babies who had fledged from that nest.

By August 12^th, there were no more swallows on the wires.  But, on both the mornings of August 13^th and 14^th, I observed a solitary swallow circling high over the property.  Although swallows are generally flocking birds, I wondered if this lone swallow had been a male fledgling from the pipe nest who was viewing the nest’s location one more time in order to claim the nest upon his arrival next spring.

Yes, a young male Barn Swallow will sometimes do this.  He will return the following spring and claim the nest in which he was hatched.  He will then proceed to attract a female to the nest, and if the female approves of both him and the nest, the pair will mate, and the female will lay her eggs in that nest.

I experienced this very phenomenon by observing my porch nest during the summers of 2011 and 2012.  It sounds unbelievable that a young Barn Swallow could fly to South America, only to return in the spring and find the very nest in which he was hatched, but this has proven to be true!  You can read a detailed narrative of it in my book.

As of this date, all of our swallows have departed for their long journeys south for the winter.  The photo to the left shows the way the pipe looked on August 16th.  Again, you can see that, although the swallows had applied mud and straw to the top of the ledge that I had installed for them, they had not build a nest there.

It still remains a mystery as to how Barn Swallows could have nested inside the pipe.  Even if I assume that they did so, how did they do it?  I do not own the building and therefore do not know if the pipe leads to an open space.  If the pipe had not been a nesting place for swallows, why else would I have experienced swallows swooping at me while I was walking around the yard near the corner of my building?  And why did we have so many juvenile swallows perching on the nearby utility wire?

Perhaps the mystery will be solved next spring.  I plan to carefully observe whether any of the returning swallows show interest in that corner of the building and the pipe that protrudes from it.

In Bonding with the Barn Swallows, you can read about the unexpected location where one special male Barn Swallow perched all night and why he perched there.  You can also read about how that same Barn Swallow communicated to me on two occasions, once through typical Barn Swallow twittering, and again by his body language on the utility wire while perched next to two other Barn Swallows.  Two days later, an event revealed what he was trying to tell me.

Just click on the image to the upper right to find out more about the book.  You can click on "Look inside" to see the Table of Contents and read the first few pages of the book.  Or, you can click on "Surprise me" and read other pages!

 

 

Lady Bluebird is doing fine ...

Text and photos © 2015 Adele Wilson, author of Bonding with the Barn Swallows

As far as I can tell, the new female Bluebird who arrived on the scene on June 12th is doing fine.  I am calling her "Lady Bluebird" because she seems so sophisticated and vigilant.  To the right is a photo that I took of her on the evening of June 14th.

Lady Bluebird is diligently incubating her eggs now.  I sometimes see her in the mornings peeking out of the nest box hole.  The incubation period is critical for female Bluebirds because they like their privacy and do not like being disturbed.  So, when I go out in the yard to refill the bird feeders, I try to tiptoe past her box and pretend that I don't see her inside.

Lady Bluebird's mate (I still call him "Mr. Bluebird"), also seems to be doing fine.  He has been hanging around since May 10th, the date that he and his previous mate took over the first nest box.  Poor little fellow!  He's been through so much, losing his first mate, who ended up abandoning the nest.

Mr. Bluebird seems to be a little more attentive to Lady Bluebird than he was to his previous mate.  He had also been busy guarding his territory, including both his own nest box and the now-empty second box.  He chases House Sparrows from the second box when he sees them, but I don't know if he will succeed in preventing the sparrows from nesting there.

The photo to the left shows Mr. and Lady Bluebird guarding their box on the morning of June 22nd.  Mr. Bluebird is the more brightly colored bird on the left, while Lady Bluebird is on the right.  Mother Nature gives the female Bluebird subtler colors to help guard against their becoming easy prey for cats, racoons, and larger birds.

Just a few minutes before I took this photo, Mr. and Lady Bluebird were guarding the second box.  The photo below shows them around that box.

In the meantime, we now quite a number of swallows flying around -- three different species in all, including Barn Swallows, the birds I wrote about in my book.  The other morning, all three species were flying above the yard.

The few Barn Swallows that arrived in April have now fledged their first broods of the season.  It is easy to recognize the juvenile Barn Swallows flying high in the air because they are slightly smaller than the adults and must flap their wings more rapidly.

To the right are some juvenile Barn Swallows whom I was able to photograph on June 22nd.  Although their wings are already rather long, their tail feathers have not yet grown to the adult length.

Tree Swallows comprise the second species that was present the other morning.  Six Tree Swallows were flying around the second nest box, the box inside which their eggs went missing about a week or so ago.  It was quite a decision for me to remove their nest and clean the box after I discovered their eggs to be gone, but a major factor was that the pair of Tree Swallows were no longer hanging around the box.  To see photos of Tree Swallows, you can go to my post of May 17th.

I thought that removing the nest in the second box would help deter House Sparrows from nesting in the box, but, judging from what I observed this morning, I might be incorrect about that.  I observed a pair of sparrows perching near the box, and the male even went inside the box and came out again.

The third species of swallow that was around the other morning was the Cliff Swallow.  To the left is a rare photo of a Cliff Swallow that I shot in 2014.

The same morning when I spotted the Barn and Tree Swallows flying around, three Cliff Swallows flew up to my porch nest.  House Sparrows are currently using that nest, but the nest is actually a Cliff Swallow nest.  It was a Barn Swallow nest until July 2013, when Cliff Swallows arrived and remodeled it.  The nest was used by Cliff Swallows in both 2013 and 2014.  More about this in a future post.






If you have enjoyed these photos, you might want to check out the 117 photos in my book, Bonding with the Barn Swallows.  Many of them show close-ups of the baby Barn Swallows that were hatched on my porch during 2011 and 2012.  There are also photos of the parent swallows guarding the nest and feeding their young.  As an extra bonus, the book includes photos of five different juvenile Barn Swallows, just ten days after fledging.  You will be amazed at their varied markings.  The book describes how one special male Barn Swallow communicated to me by his body language on the utility wire and how, only two days later, I discovered what he was trying to tell me.  The book is available by clicking on the image to the right. 

Bluebirds and Tree Swallows: We've Got Eggs!

Text and photos © 2013, 2015 Adele Wilson, author of Bonding with the Barn Swallows

Mama Barn Swallow on nest, night of May 12, 2012

It’s always exciting to find eggs in a bird nest, especially a nest that one is monitoring.

My first experience of finding eggs in such a nest was on May 13^th, 2012. There was a year-old Barn Swallow nest on my porch, and a new pair of Barn Swallows had claimed it.  Ever since May 3^rd, the female had been spending every night on the nest. Yet, each time I had checked the nest, I had found no eggs.

But May 13^th, 2012, was to be a very special day.  (Please be patient; I'll get to the Bluebirds and Tree Swallows in a minute!)

Mid May, with its blooming flowers and warmer temperatures, is one of the most beautiful times of the year in Central Appalachia, and Sunday, May 13th, was certainly no exception. I had slept restfully the night before, charmed by the fact that the male [barn] swallow had stayed all night on my door ledge on May 11th, even while I was opening the storm door and stepping directly below him. It was time to check again for eggs in the nest. Mirror in hand, I carried the stepping stool onto the porch, climbed up to view the nest, held up the mirror, and beheld a most pleasant surprise. There were two eggs in the nest!

How synchronistic that it was Mother’s Day and I had found the first evidence that the female swallow was to be a mother! To me this signified a new beginning, a promise of new life, and something I had earnestly been hoping for. I decided from that point onward, to call her Mama Swallow and the male, Papa Swallow.

(from Bonding with the Barn Swallows, p. 66)

If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that we put up two nest boxes this spring (2015) – not for Barn Swallows, but for Bluebirds. We mounted the first box on April 24^th and were delighted that only one week later – on May 1^st – a pair of birds arrived and claimed the box!

However, the birds who arrived on May 1^st were Tree Swallows, not Bluebirds.  Nevertheless, we were utterly thrilled to have birds investigating the box only seven days after we had mounted it!

Tree Swallows are beautiful birds, and they diet exclusively on flying insects.  We were glad to have attracted these natural pest-controllers into our back yard.

As shown in the photo on the left, the female Tree Swallow began flying into the box's entrance hole with straw that very day.  Her job was to build the nest while the male's job was to guard it.

One never knows what to expect when it comes to nesting birds. To our surprise, just nine days later – on May 10^th – a pair of BLUEBIRDS arrived and drove the Tree Swallows from the box. Although the female Tree Swallow had built a nice nest inside the box, she had not laid any eggs.

The photo on the right shows the pair of Bluebirds on top of the box.  The male is brightly colored, while the female's colors are more subtle.

You can see that the female has a strand of straw in her bill in preparation for taking it into the box.  As in the Tree Swallow species, the female Bluebird's job is to build the nest while the male stands guard.  However, this female already had a base on which to start building her nest.  She just added more straw to the Tree Swallows' nest and built the sides up higher.

In an effort to do justice to the Tree Swallows, we mounted a second nest box (Box #2) on May 19^th, and, only four days later, a new pair of Tree Swallows arrived and claimed it! 

Just as with the original pair of Tree Swallows in Box #1, this new female Tree Swallow proceeded to build a nest inside the box while the male guarded it.

The photo to the left shows the new female Tree Swallow peeking out of Box #2.

This time, the male chose to guard the box from the nearby fence, as shown in the photo below.  When sunlight hits the back of a male Tree Swallow, it brings out his lovely, iridescent blue feathers.

In the meantime, the female Bluebird had started laying eggs in the first nest box (Box #1).  On May 20^th, I discovered two eggs inside, and now there are five!

Soon the new female Tree Swallow, not to be outdone, began laying her own eggs in Box #2.  On May 29^th, there were two eggs inside her nest, and, on last count, there were four.

I do not yet know how many more eggs the Tree Swallow will lay.  The average number in a clutch of this species is said to be four to seven, but they can lay as many as eight.

Stay tuned to find out how many eggs the Tree Swallow lays and when the Bluebird eggs will hatch.  You can follow this blog by entering your email address at the top right.

If you have enjoyed these photos, you will want to check out the 117 photos in my book, Bonding with the Barn Swallows.  Many of them show closeups of the baby Barn Swallows that were hatched on my porch during 2011 and 2012.  There are also photos of the parent swallows guarding the nest and feeding their young.  As an extra bonus, the book includes photos of five different juvenile Barn Swallows, just ten days after fledging.  You will be amazed at their varied markings.  The book describes how one special male Barn Swallow communicated to me by his body language on the utility wire and how, only two days later, I discovered what he was trying to tell me.  The book is available at Amazon at:   http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1494481464/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1494481464&linkCode=as2&tag=barnswalfrie-20&linkId=5WME3VAHNSX3EXHH

How the Mockingbirds enticed me into giving them their own feeder!

Text and photos © 2015 Adele Wilson

My last post was about our resident pair of Mockingbirds disappearing a couple of days before our January 6th snowstorm. I don’t know where they went, but I didn’t see them for over a week. Perhaps they went on their winter vacation … perhaps down to the Caribbean?

I had thought back to last winter when we had weeks and weeks of snow cover.  I hadn't remembered seeing any Mockingbirds during all those weeks.  So I had concluded that our Mockingbirds must dislike snow and that I wouldn’t see them again until early spring.

But I was wrong!  By January 10^th, most of our snow had melted.  And, on that day, the Mockingbirds reappeared!  One of them even posed for me.
 

It was wonderful to have the Mockingbirds back.  Last year, just prior to Christmas, I had forgiven them for being so possessive of the feeders and chasing the other birds away from them.  My solution had been to hang up even more feeders on the trees around the building.  My reasoning was that the Mockingbirds would have a more difficult time guarding all of the feeders at once, consequently allowing the other birds to eat at them.

In the process of becoming accustomed to seeing the Mockingbird pair perched on their tree during most mornings, I had even begun developing an attachment to them!

We had another snowstorm on January 26th.  This time, surprisingly, the Mockingbirds did not leave the area!  On the left you can see one of the birds guarding their feeder that afternoon.

To this day, I have never been able to figure out why these birds disappeared during our January 6th snowstorm, but hung around during our January 26th storm.  But I am so glad they stayed!  I had been worried about them earlier in the month when I couldn't find them anywhere.

With the advent of more snow, I hung a second feeder on the Mockingbirds' tree.  Perhaps the Mockingbirds would start feeling compassion for the other birds who were having difficulty finding food due to the ground being covered with snow.

It took a while for the January 26th snow to finally melt.  Sometimes during certain parts of the day, the Mockingbirds were nowhere around, giving the other birds a chance to feed on their tree.  

I continued to replace the cakes in the feeders on the Mockingbirds' tree.  At one point, all I had left were black oil sunflower seed suet cakes; so the Mockingbirds were left with two of that type of cake on their tree.  Unfortunately, the Mockingbirds were not eating from either cake.  This was the way that I discovered that they truly do not like black oil sunflower seeds.

By early February, most of our snow had melted and I was able to get to the store.  Knowing that the Mockingbirds love my homemade peanut butter cakes, I purchased natural peanut butter, corn meal, sunflower kernels and shelled peanuts.

That night I stayed up late and made four peanut butter cakes from scratch.  The next morning I shifted the remaining chunks of suet on the Mockingbird's tree into the feeders on the other trees and hung one of the new peanut butter cakes on the Mockingbirds’ tree.

The two Mockingbirds immediately began gorging themselves on the new peanut butter cake!  One bird would feed while the other would guard from a higher branch.  I could tell that they deeply appreciated me for hanging the cake for them.

The Mockingbirds and I were striking up quite a friendship.  After my hanging the peanut butter cake on their tree, they were becoming even more grateful to me for feeding them. 

Later that day, I noticed that the cake was also very popular with the Starlings.  While the Mockingbirds were able to chase one or two Starlings away from the peanut butter cake, the arrival of an immense number of Starlings would cause the Mockingbirds to retreat. 

Upon exiting my apartment and stepping out onto the porch, I noticed that that most of the Starlings on the Mockingbirds’ tree would immediately take flight.  I think the Mockingbirds were beginning to notice that, too. 

I do not deliberately attempt to scare the Starlings away.  They automatically fly from the property when any human comes within 30 to 40 feet of them.

The Mockingbirds were becoming increasingly appreciative of me for inadvertently scaring the Starlings away by my presence on the porch.  I was even getting the feeling that the Mockingbirds were welcoming me as they saw me exit from my apartment and step outside.  It was almost as if they were breathing sighs of relief at my taking over “guard duty” for them!

I hung the second homemade peanut butter cake on a tree that is farther from the porch than is the Mockingbirds’ tree.  Both of the new peanut butter cakes were proving to be extremely popular with the all of the birds.  In fact, both of the cakes were gone within 24 hours!

I refilled the empty suet feeder on the Mockingbirds’ tree with another homemade peanut butter cake.  As I began to observe the newly placed cake, I noticed a dozen Starlings descending on it!  Just as before, the Mockingbirds were not chasing any of the Starlings off the tree.  Instead, the Mockingbirds were retreating from the tree.

The replacement peanut butter cake did not even last as long as the first one.  After hanging it out during the afternoon, I noticed it was completely gone by the next morning.

It suddenly dawned on me that I had been feeding the Starlings, and the Starlings only.  The Starlings, en masse, were chasing all the other birds away!

I could not afford continuing to supply the Starlings with new cakes once or twice a day.  So I had an idea.  What if I put a suet feeder on my porch, an area that is more heavily trafficked by humans?  Perhaps the Starlings would be intimidated from feeding there.

I share my porch with my two next-door neighbors; so there are three of us who commonly traverse it on our ways to and from the insides of our apartments.  In fact, my neighbors’ door is only a few inches from mine; we use the same landing when we step outside.

So I looked in my kitchen cabinet, dug out my last empty suet cage, which happened to have a chain attached to it, and decided to hang it from the porch rail.  There was one problem, however.  The chain was not long enough for it to go around the rail.

Fortunately, I am a jewelry maker and found an inexpensive gold-plated chain in my supplies.  I attached the chain to the feeder’s existing chain, and voila!  The chain was long enough.

I filled the suet cage with the one remaining homemade peanut butter cake and took it out onto the porch.  One of the Mockingbirds was perching, in its usual fashion, on the tree by the driveway, attempting to guard the feeder on the tree.  I called to the Mockingbird and showed it the new cake inside the feeder.

You might wonder what type of call I made to the Mockingbird.  It was the same musical “Hello-oh” that I had been voicing to the Mockingbirds for the last several weeks, and I’m sure the Mockingbird recognized it.

As soon as I showed the Mockingbird the new feeder containing the new suet cake, I attached the feeder to the porch rail and returned inside my apartment, closing the door behind me.  As I peeked out my blinds, the Mockingbird IMMEDIATELY landed on the porch rail and proceeded to help itself at the feeder!

I then cracked the door to take a picture, at which point the Mockingbird was becoming alarmed at my close presence.  I quickly snapped the shutter without having time to frame the photo or focus the image.

Hoping to get a better photo, I proceeded out to the porch.  Unfortunately, that caused the Mockingbird to take flight; so I returned inside to my apartment.

After several tries of re-entering my apartment and exiting again in hopes of getting more photos, I noticed that the first Mockingbird must have told its mate about the new feeder.  Both birds were sitting on the fence, not far from the porch.

The two Mockingbirds must have realized that they had been given a treasure.  They immediately proceeded to protect that treasure by peering in all directions in case another bird might decide to avail itself of the newly found food.

Finally, both Mockingbirds flew to the porch.  One bird proceeded to eat at the feeder while the other bird stood guard duty.  The photo below shows both birds although it may be difficult to see the bird at the feeder. 

 

My taking of the photos must have intimidated the one Mockingbird from eating because it soon took flight.  But the second bird remained on the porch to continue to guard the feeder.

Unfortunately, after I re-entered my apartment, I peeked through the blinds and observed a couple of Starlings at the feeder with one of the Mockingbirds attempting to chase them off.  I stepped out onto the porch again, causing the Starlings to fly away.  The Mockingbird flew to the nearby fence.

Over the next few days while I was outside, but near the porch, I occasionally noticed the two Mockingbirds feeding from the new porch feeder.  Judging by the slow rate at which the cake was being consumed, it seemed that the problem had been solved.  Perhaps my strategy had been successful, and the few Starlings who might have attempted to feed at the cake on the porch were being chased away by the Mockingbirds.

I was hoping that the new cake would last for at least a week.  However, at the end of four days, most of it had been consumed.  And at the end of five days it was gone.

This time I had no more homemade cakes to put out.  I went to Southern States and purchased a variety pack of commercial suet cakes.  One of them was labeled “Peanut Butter”; so I refilled the porch feeder with that cake.

I began to think that I finally had a system going.  I would continue feeding the Mockingbirds the cakes they love, but feed them on the porch where the Starlings did not feel comfortable because of the frequency of human traffic.

Unfortunately, however, it has now been a week, and the entire suet cake that I purchased at Southern States is still there!  Apparently, birds are like humans; there are certain foods that they do not like to eat.  

Next time I make homemade peanut butter cakes, I will reserve them for hanging on the porch, one by one.  In the meantime, I have five suet feeders hanging from the trees around the building.  I checked them today, and they all appear to be at least half full.

So there is ample food for the birds, even with the snowfall we are expecting tomorrow.  And if the birds consume the tree-hung suet cakes before I can replace them, they are welcome to land on the porch and start partaking of the cake that is hanging there!

I first began having intimate encounters with wild birds when Barn Swallows nested on my porch during 2011 and 2012.  During those encounters, I became convinced that humans and birds can develop meaningful rapports, communicate with each other, and enjoy mutually beneficial relationships.  You can read about my experiences in Bonding with the Barn Swallows, available at Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1494481464/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1494481464&linkCode=as2&tag=barnswalfrie-20&linkId=UWK65NAR2XUXEJWL.