I'm taking tons of photos, and probably getting my Facebook feed blocked from all my friends' timelines. Their loss!
Want some photos? OK!
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| My only shot with Mr. and Mrs. I think that's the female on the right. I could be completely wrong, though :) |
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| At first I just saw them (him? her?) bathing. I can't reliably tell sexes or individuals apart, so I don't know if it's just the same bird on a hygiene kick. I shot this through the screen door, so it's kind of weird lighting. |
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| Preening after a bath. I love this photo :) |
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| Patio furniture doubles as bird drying rack. |
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Then I saw them holding and carrying stuff! NESTING stuff! |
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| Dead leaf. This is the position of the nest, in the same potted Nematanthus as last year's nest. The new nest is close to the old one, but they don't seem to have disturbed it or taken nest material for their new construction - the remains of an unhatched egg are still in place. |
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| Speaking of eggs, here's the first one! I think this one did not survive, though - the next day it was accompanied by another unspeckled blue egg, possibly a cowbird's. (Kicking myself that I didn't get a photo). The day after, there was only one speckled egg again. My theory was that both previous eggs had been removed/eaten/predated, and a new egg, the third, lain. Potential nest predators in my neighbourhood include raccoon, crows, skunks, ravens, scrub-jays, rats, etc. |
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| I believe this is egg 3 and egg 4. The nest is difficult to photograph, it can be in quite bright light, as above, or deep shade, as here. I even had to take the zoom lens off my camera! |
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| Potential nest parasite, brown-headed cowbird. |
So far so good! They don't seem to mind me snapping away at them, and a few times I've set up the camera on a tripod with a remote shutter to keep further out of their way. If I go out on the patio while they're around, they chip and chip at me. Stay tuned for updates!
Great photos! Your eggs have more speckles than I've seen on junco eggs before, but there may be regional variation. They definitely can get parasitized by cowbirds - a cowbird egg will be larger. (In fact I'm slightly wondering if both of your eggs there are cowbird eggs, since they look a lot like the cowbird eggs I've seen...) An unspeckled blue egg isn't a cowbird, it's a robin. The nest also looks like a robin's - which isn't weird in itself, since juncos do nest in old robin's nests, but it's a bit weird if robin eggs are appearing in it! Is it at all possible that you've got a robin nest here, and the junco's nest is somewhere else? (I know that seems far-fetched, but the eggs are puzzling me.)
ReplyDeleteHere are some pics of junco eggs: http://toughlittlebirds.com/2013/10/12/small-nest-big-babies-no-problem/ and the second pic here shows a junco egg and a cowbird egg for comparison: http://toughlittlebirds.com/2014/03/06/field-season-2013-moments-in-photos/
Once they start incubating (which will be when there are 3-5 eggs in the nest), if you approach the nest, you can flush Mom and see if the bird that you've flushed is a robin or a junco.
I think you're right and these are two cowbird eggs. No further eggs have been laid, so I agree with your theory that they've abandoned this nest. Boo, no juncos this year for my patio!
DeleteI'll post my blurry shot of the blueish egg.