With all our recent hot weather the birds, who we don’t normally associate with it, take to the water! Obviously they don’t completely submerge themselves in it, but they do like to splash about in it to either cool down or rid themselves of some of those pesky fleas and other annoyances. Robins are particularly fond of taking a quick bath in whatever small pool/puddle of water they can, provided that they have still got a foothold! We have a bird bath at the front of our house and a Robin is a regular visitor to it and enthusiastically splashes away for quite sometime. Of course this depletes the bath somewhat, but either the rain or we replenish it for them. The depth isn’t too great so they can manage quite comfortably in it and once they have lowered the water level some of the smaller birds have a go in it too, such as the House Finch (female in picture), and the Chipping Sparrows.
In a previous article, I alluded to our pair of Bluebirds who were occasionally flying straight from their perch on an adjacent nesting box and flying directly into the one they had used earlier, for no apparent reason. Yesterday I got a good view of the female atop this nesting box with a mouthful of Insects, which she then took down into the box below! Presumably there are youngsters in the nest and she is now feeding them, but none of this is going at a hurried pace, so I am still not convinced that this is the case! I’m probably wrong, as usual (ask my wife!), as I probably am about the tiny House Wren, who is still making overtures at nesting in one of the other nesting boxes. His partner has also been seen entering this box with food too, so perhaps it is “catching!” Maybe you have also seen some strange activity of your own in your garden. At least, if you have, you will have experienced the thrill of being able to watch the birds ” doing their thing” first hand and being able to share in their activities too. Stay safe and well,
Cheers,
John Baldwin
