This Tree Swallow does not appear to be concerned about me walking by his 'house' on my deck.

Please visit the original post at Leedra's Photos For Fun

for additional photographs of this Tree Swallow nesting on my deck.

Mockingbird at Rock City birdhouse

This Mockingbird is at a Rock City barn birdhouse. 30 years ago barns all over East Tennessee were painted very similiar to this birdhouse. As the barns became less frequent these birdhouses became popular in the same area. It reminds us of times gone by. Don't know that I have ever seen a bird actually use one.

Mockingbird caught in the wind

This Mockingbird starts out very composed.
Then the wind starts.

But he won't let the wind get the best of him. He hangs on until the wind settles back down, then he flew off.

I am posting this in honor of my two brothers, Linley and Tim. They survived Ike. Grand Turk is worse than the island they are on in Turks/Caicos. When the power went out on Saturday evening they went on to bed, they slept through most of the storm. We have now received an email saying their power is back on and they are ok. Going back to work today. I want to thank everybody for the prayers for them and everybody else in Turks/Caicos. Cuba and Grand Turk are both in bad shape, we all need to continue to pray for them.

Eastern Bluebirds through the Leyland Cypress

Wednesday morning I was headed down to the wall to spread the sunflower seeds out. And glanced up through the Leyland Cypress and these 2 young bluebirds were just sitting there.
One flew after I got one good photo. But I was still behind the Leyland Cypress. Then I stepped out to the side.

This one was as curious about me as I was him. Then he flew.

You can see these are fairly young and in the new birdhouse I have babies getting real close to flying. They have had them one brood right after the other this year. Never thought we would ever see so many bluebirds at the same time.

Eastern Bluebird babies peeping out of birdhouse

I was walking across the backyard when I saw the bluebird leave the birdhouse. Then I saw something start out again. As you can see from the photos below they were curious about me. All 6 pictures were taken in less than 1 minute. It is almost as if the 1st one said "come look, you gotta see this", then there were 2 heads trying to look out the one little hole. Then one last look and down they went. I waited about 5 minutes and they never popped up again.It does seem late in the season but these photos were taken Monday, August 11. This is the new birdhouse I put up and they built within the week of installation.

Eastern Bluebirds at newly installed birdhouse

Eastern Bluebirds a plenty.Between us and the neighbors yard (5 acres) we have 8 bluebird houses, counting this new one. It seems like earlier in the spring the Tree Swallows were winning the fight, but now it seems we have a lot more Bluebirds than Tree Swallows. Not sure what happened to the Tree Swallows, maybe they don't continue to have more like the Bluebirds do.It took them 1 week to check this one out after it was put up. Notice the young one is helping too. There are now babies in the box.

The last photo is just to show where the new house is located. This arbor was built for wisteria starts from my Granny Sorrells. Due to the drought last year (some better this year) they have been real slow at getting going. We did face it toward the outside, for when the wisteria is more plentiful, hopefully the bluebirds will still use the box.

Eastern Bluebird action shots

Eastern Bluebird action shots. No particular order, but they were all taken within a few minutes of each other on June 26, 2008.

Eastern Bluebirds checking out Tree Swallow's birdhouse

Eastern Bluebird action shots, these photos were taken while this male Eastern Bluebird was trying his best to convince the female Eastern Bluebird to check out this 3 level birdhouse. I think he never even got her to go in any of the openings. They appear to be discussing it, he then tryed to show her the upper level. Then they appear to be discussing it again. Then he shows her the middle level. More discussion, then he proceeds to the bottom level. I left them still discussing it. These were taken in late June, there had already been several families of bluebirds in our yard, so this would have probably been a 2nd or 3rd for the season. I don't know how many pairs of bluebirds we have had this year. Right after this I bought a new bluebird house and they were in it within the week of installation. There are currently eggs in the new birdhouse.
The photo below is my favorite of this group.

Eastern Bluebird additional photos of posing on front birdhouse