Attracting Gold Finch

I moved the white sock containing black thistle seeds to the post near the breakfast room window, atop which sits the now empty robin nest.  In order to do that I moved the hanging planter of Verbena and Petunias to where the sock hung.  I also had a sock filled with black thistle hung throughout the winter from which the finches will not eat.  I emptied the overwintered sock onto the round patio table in a mound of seed.  I am curious to see if the finches will go through these seeds now that the seeds are easily accessible.  I shook out all of the seeds and turned the sock inside out removing every last seed.  For photographs, the stark white sock is too extreme for the exposures.  I will try to dye the sock brown with tea or coffee then buy some thistle seeds and refill the dyed sock.

I boiled water, placed a tea bag into a stainless steel bowl and submerged the sock.  It doesn't seem to be taking the tea stain.  I also placed about a tablespoon of white vinegar into the bowl as a mordant as done with easter egg dyes.  I will leave the sock submerged overnight.  If the sock has not accepted the stain by then I will add my coffee grounds to the bowl.  If neither of those work, I will spray paint the sock.

I have seen gold finches on the sock but have not had the opportunity to photography any there.  I did capture house finches at the bird bath.  The house finches do not feed from the sock nor do chickadees, nut hatches or titmice.

Male and Female House Finches at bird bath

Close up of Male House Finch at bird bath

Robin's Nest Near My Window 5 and Last

All the chicks were gone this morning,4July2011.  The parents have not visited the nest all day.  I hope the fledglings survive.

I guess I will need to focus on the goldfinches and hummingbirds, now.

Robin's Nest Near My Window 4

The Birth Head Feathers taken 1July2011

Late this evening, 3July2011, I arrived home after a day away at a family function.  I entered the front door and went directly to the breakfast room window to check up on the robins.  There was one of the chicks standing in the nest looking around.  It seems to had lost almost all of its birth feathers.  I went about the kitchen getting food out to make dinner.

After placing several pots on the stove, I returned to the window.  I had not seen either of the two parents since my arrival and neither was in sight and now two chicks were standing in the nest.  The boldest of the two seemed to be looking directly into my eyes telling me it was not afraid.  Within seconds of my arrival to the window this second time, the boldest chick turned and flew off to my left, chirping as it flew.  The actions of the boldest chick combined with its chirping stimulated the other standing chick to follow.  Neither of the chicks seemed to fly well, since it was their first try. I thought they landed some 15 feet into my yard.  The last chick, which was often hidden and still had most of those birth feather arising atop its head, stayed behind.  I think this meek chick may be a bit immature, perhaps hatching days after the others.

It was twilight before my curiosity got me out in to my yard to look for the robins that flew the coop, as it were.  The light was fast disappearing.  I walked to where I thought they would have landed and began to look around.  I didn't search amongst the plants in the garden but looked on the grass and concrete patio areas.  No sight of the chicks and they weren't making any sounds either.  My biggest fear is that they won't survive.  They didn't get any flight lessons but did they need lessons on feeding themselves?  Do the parents teach them to search out worms and insects or is that as instinctual as flying?  I will look for them again in the morning.

The Boldest Chick taken 16:50 3July2011

Robin's Nest Near My Window 3

I finally started to photograph the robin nest outside my breakfast room window.  There are definitely two robins feeding the chicks.  I believe one is a male, for it has a darker hood and it allows me to get closer before flying away.  The two birds bring mostly worms and I think I saw a bee or something that resembles a medium sized insect.

The three chicks are like asparagus, growing so quickly that if I had a microphone near the nest, I swear I would be able to hear them grow.  They are large enough to fill the nest and the female is unable to sit atop them, perching beside the nest at night.

The post atop which the robins built their nest is less than two feet from the wall of the house on the WNW side of the house.  Two Clematis that climb the fencing surrounding the post give the nest cover.  I believe this is one of the reasons the location was chosen by the robins.  The leaves from the Clematis also shade the nest from later day sun, only allowing some dappled light through to the nest.  This created a situation of poor lighting for photographic exposures.  I had to get out my kitchen scissors and do some pruning.

Female robin over nest internal point of view

Male Robin with bee external point of view

Male robin with worns interior point of view

Three robin chicks internal point of view

I am still thinking of adding a reflector to the house somehow to add even more light to the inner nest area.  A remote controlled battery powered led light suspended above the nest would be even better.  That will be a chore for this winter with installation before the arrival of the robins.

Birds in my Garden

I planted several flowers with the intention of attracting wildlife, specifically, birds and insects.  I have a red honeysuckle, hardy geraniums, lavender, purple coneflowers, verbena, zinnias, Thai basil, sweet basil, sage, buddleja, hydrangea Lacecap, lobelia, lots of daylillies and hostas.  Hummingbirds are attracted to the honeysuckle and the red to blue color petunias.  Gold finch are attracted to the seeds from the purple coneflower.  All the rest attract butterflies and bees/parasitic wasps.

The buddleja aka Butterfly Bush attracts the most butterflies by far with the zinnias running a close second.  The honeysuckle-Alabama Crimson attracts the hummingbirds.  I also have in the garden two bird baths and a hanging sack of black thistle seeds.  The bird baths attract all kinds of birds, some prefer the bath on the ground rather than the one standing 3ft tall.  The baths must be washed and scrubed once per week to remove the dirt.  I also placed a dripping watering device about four inches above the surface of the water on the tall bath to add water daily and to make a sound that the birds may hear the splash.  I placed the standing bath and hung the sack of thistle seeds within three feet of my breakfast room window and the show is almost nonstop.  The black thistle has two gold finch clinging to the sack almost constantly.  You just have to love the color of those birds.  There are house finches in the bird bath that look as though someone dipped them them head first into raspberry juice.

I have photographs of the currently flowering plants just below.  Tell me how you attract wildlife to your garden.

Day Lilly-Hemerocallis

Day Lilly Double-Hemerocallis

Hardy Geranium - Cranesbill

Honeysuckle- Lonicera sempervirens 'Alabama Crimson'

Hydrangea Lacecap

Verbena

Some kind of bee on Thai Basil

Swallowtail Butterfly on Zinnia

Swallowtail Butterfly on Verbena

My neighbor's aggressive Campsis Radicans-Orange

Petunia

Robin's Nest Near My Window 2

The eggs have hatched.  The chicks are being fed worms constantly throughout the day.  As my luck would have it, my lens broke about 10 days ago and I have not been able to capture one image, since.  My new lens arrived Fri but I have been busy and still unable to photograph the robins.

I went outside this evening to grill some dinner and water the plants on the patio.  I also carried out my camera, just in case I got lucky.  The mother robin usually flies away as soon as it hears my sliding door open.  This time was no exception.  I placed the camera on a table and checked the weight of the potted plants to estimate their need for water.

I turned on the faucet for the garden hose and proceeded to water the hanging basket nearest my breakfast room window and within 2 feet of the robin's nest.  I could see little beaks upraised in the nest.  I was already too late to photograph the eggs in the nest.   One of the parents was approximately 10 ft behind me chirping loudly seeming to let me know I am too close to their nest and chicks.  The robins are not aggressive however, and only chirp loudly from a safe distance.


The parent robins will not approach the nest as long as I was within 20 ft and clearly visible.  I then pulled one of the chairs from the table and chair set within 7 feet of the post and decided to sit still and wait.  One of the parents returned with a worm dangling from its beak and perched on the horizontal support for the hanging basket attached to the same post on which the nest is built.  This may be an acceptable image but I hadn't the camera in my hands, the setting sun was hidden behind clouds and I wasn't ready to capture it.  I needed to move my position a bit for a better composition, besides.  I decided not to keep the chicks from their dinner.   I moved the chair before I returned to the house, so I wouldn't need to move it when I returned.

I hope to capture some acceptable images before the chicks fly away.

Remembering My Neighbor in Greeting Cards

For the last few weeks, I have been designing and writing greeting cards to sell in my store at Greeting Card Universe.  At my previous house in Philadelphia, I had a neighbor whom I remember saying quite often, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it."  He often observed me changing the oil in my car or tuning the engine.  He, on the other hand, sat in the blazing sun on my side of the shared patio with beads of perspiration running down his bald head.  He enjoyed the hot sun and said it reminded him of the old country, meaning Africa, him being African-American.  With those thoughts in mind, I started a line of greeting cards using colloquialisms I might hear him uttering.

I have a few here that are in my store presently:

The sentiment inside reads:
Congratulations on your engagement!
Strong black coffee may be what you need right now.

The sentiment inside reads:
Translated from Latin "Time Flies"
Happy Birthday Friend,
stop doing that insignificant crap,
you're getting older by the second.

If you please, I would love to have you assistance.  My children and wife all tell me I am not funny.  If you could leave your opinions and suggestions for edits, please do.  It will help me enormously.


Thank you

Related Links
How to Create Greeting Cards
Victorian Translations
GCU 101
Salon of Art

Summer Soltice 2011

Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, a natural phenomenon that happens twice in the Earth orbit around Sol, the sun.  It happens once in each hemisphere, northern and southern.  A bit of research on the web will yield tons of sites with information about the Summer Solstice.

Many early civilizations built structures to mark different celestial events.  One of the many and probably the most famous is Stonehenge, in modern England.  There are
others, such as Newgrange in Ireland that pre-date Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramid of Giza.  (Newgrange, Neolithic mound, marks the Winter Solstice with the rising sun casting light down a long corridor.)

Arise before the dawn tomorrow and with camera in hand photograph your experience of Summer Solstice, 2011.

Related links

Newgrange
How to celebrate the summer soltice in Ireland
Philadelphia solstice celebration 2011

Drumming Circle in Cincinnatti
Central Park, NY celebration 2011

Swedish Midsummer Festival in Battery Park, NYC

Pagan Spirit Gathering-Earlville, IL

Santa Barbara Solstice Celebration 2011