First Garden Post - 2012

As the saying goes, “Spring has sprung”, early and with a punch. All the garden birds are back about 2 weeks earlier than usual and we can’t look out the window without seeing at least 2 or 3 flying by. As soon as I filled the bird bath with water there were customers waiting to have a drink or to take a bath. Here are some pictures from out Japanese garden where the bath is located underneath Japanese maple.

American Robin

Northern Cardinal

House Finch

Jumping Robin is Raising New Family

So, here goes another Robin post J. Yup, our JR has built new nest, a nest that is much more friendly to my camera and eyes! He build new nest at about 6-1/2 feet high but close to edge and down-wind, the trunk of tree shades nest from wind. I still don’t know how many eggs are in nest, he barely leaves, but I will know soon. I don’t think that first fledglings survived on the ground, too many cats are prowling at night.

May 24, 2011 Update

This morning all eggs have disappeared from the nest. There is no trace at all in the nest or around the spruce tree, no shells, no egg yolk, nothing. The nest is clearly visible from neighboring house’s roof tops and crows like to hang around there. Also, few squirrels and chipmunks pass by daily...who knows. So, it looks like this season is over for our JR. Better luck next year. L

Last Jumping Robin Post

The fledglings have left the nest and living a dangerous lives on the ground. I don’t know what the chances are for all four of them to survive are, but I feel that they are quite slim. If Jumping Robin follows same pattern as last two years he will start building another nest in 3 weeks. For now, this chapter is closed.

Jumping Robin’s Family

Finally, I had a chance to have a peak inside our Robin’s nest. Both parents were searching for food so I had to be really quick. They never leave the nest unattended for more then short minute. Also, since the nest is so deep inside the spruce I had to use tool maker’s telescopic mirror in order to see the babies. I am happy to report that all four eggs have hatched and all babies are same size and growing fast. Now that I know, I will leave them alone. Next report will be their first flight.

Jumping Robin Update

Our Jumping Robin has a family and is very busy feeding them with his partner. I would love to know how many flights a day both of them make. Unfortunately, I can’t tell how many of the 4 eggs hatched, there is always one parent around and the last thing I want to do is to disturb them. This year they build their nest higher and closer to the trunk of our spruce so it is difficult to have a look or to take pictures. As far as I know this is the only nest in that tree. We have other two spruce trees and they are virtual avian nurseries. The tree in front of our sunroom has one Grackle nest, 2 Mourning Dove nests, 2 House Sparrow nests and one Chipping Sparrow nest. That’s not a tree, that’s a condominium!

The other spruce has 2 House Finch nests and 1 Chipping Sparrow nest. Needles to say, there is always some bird flying in front of our windows and Robins being Robins the singing starts about 45 minutes before sunrise.

Adult dove feeding babies.

Mama keeping watch.



One Mourning Dove family has 2 chicks that partially feeding for themselves but most of the feeding is done by parents. The chicks are very tame whereas parents are very skittish, you can’t get close to them.

Also, the bird bath that we have in our Japanese Garden in front of our living room door is very busy place and the robins, finches and sparrows put on quite a show. There is so much splashing going on that we have to top it with fresh water on daily basis.



Bird bath in Japanese Garden. View from our living room sofa.



Spring is Here! Finally!!

Crocuses are out now for a while but this morning first tulip started to open and Blue Bells cover slopes along our roads.



Also, Robins and Grackles started to build their nests and the lawns are getting greener by the hour. It is incredible how fast the winter damage from snow gets self repaired. Looks like next week I’ll be de-thatching the lawn and after that the regular lawn care routine kicks into full cycle. Next week I’ll be giving the lawn mower spring look-over and get it ready for action.

Despite the spotty weather we have managed 2 golf games in one week. Slow start but it will pick up before we slow down again because of heat and humidity. I just don’t understand how can you play golf in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Texas in summer months? Come to think of it, their playable golfing season is just as short/long as ours is up here in North.

Anyway, it was a long winter but spring is here so lets enjoy it!

By the way, with spring comes grilling on barbecue and mine is clean and ready. I have a natural gas grill so I don’t have to worry about running out of gas, ever.

Jumping Robin

For the last four years robins in our neighborhood developed strange behavior where they virtually attack any glass surface, be it door or a window. Almost every house around us has one robin jumping on the windows or doors. Our robin attacks both. There is no point in cleaning the glass until they start nesting. They do that within a day after arriving from south.

Last week this little guy gave me a scare.  Week ago we had two very cold days and nights, it dropped down to minus 15°C. The robin didn’t show up for his early morning jumping exercise and show for 3 days. Then he came back like nothing happened. I am sure it is same bird because of little mark on his left wing. It has to be magnified in order to see it. I am relived that he survived because very soon he will start building his nest in our spruce next to Japanese garden. This will be 3^rd year. At least, we hope so. It is fun to watch them taking turn incubating the eggs and then feeding babies.

Here is a movie of our Jumping Robin

Garden and Regular Crazy Spring Weather

Yesterday it was such a nice day to work in the garden. Nice sunny day and it was warm, 17 °C.

 I even went shopping for mulch in my shorts and short sleeve shirt. Then it turned cold and extremely windy. So windy that my BBQ plans got trashed. Still, it was nice to have a preview of things to come. It is amazing how fast some plants react to warmer weather. There is one nice plant that is all light yellow green, including the flower, that Marjo calls Helleborus Lenten Rose.  It is now in a full bloom!

Also, I have planted garlic bulbils that I have discovered in paper bag, sprouting. I gave them a soak of water overnight and hope to have some garlic shoots in few weeks, 2 months maximum. Next to bulbils I have planted red-green scallions. Interesting plant: it is a green onion that has a red bulb and rest is green. I had it last year and it tastes just like regular green onion but is more attractive.

Marjo is very happy that all Heuchera plants survived the winter and rabbit attacks. Last year the rabbits decimated the flowers. They just cut them and left them on ground. We need some foxes around here.

Now I have to turn my attention to lawn. We started raking the thatch this afternoon but it was too cold to finish the job. Maybe Monday. Then I have to get it rolled because it is so bumpy, again. Never ending job that lawn is!

And, what would middle of March be without American Robins attacking our sun room door and windows. They are so persistent and it looks like most of our neighbors have the same problem. There is no point in washing the windows and doors during Spring Cleanup until robins are nesting. It is amazing how high they jump and leave marks with their feet and wings.

Spring is here, no question about it!

First Sure Sign Spring is Around Corner

This morning we saw our first American Robin sitting in a neighbors tree, eating berries and singing! Yesterday, about 95% of our lawn was green but when I looked outside at 6:30 this morning it was blanketed with 3” of snow. What a nasty welcome for these harbingers of spring. Neighbor told me that he saw about 6 of them in his bushes last Friday, March 4^th. This made my day!