Go Retire Psychiatrist

Here’s an update on front-yard and back-yard birds, doing what birds always do in the spring–nesting. There were still only two cardinal eggs in the nest as of last Wednesday. There are no robin eggs in the nest; they would be blue. The parents are still pretty fussy (click on the images to see them better).

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The front yard juniper (I guess it’s a juniper; it’s a skinny evergreen) has a Hoorah’s nest with 3 white eggs. The parentage of the eggs is tough to figure out so far.

I’m not sure what’ll hatch out of those eggs. The nest itself is pretty messy for a chipping sparrow. It’s loosely woven and has bits of what looks like white textile fibers strewn around the nest and scattered on the tree branches just outside. It’s about 5 feet off the ground.

I’ve seen a male house finch and what looks like a female chipping sparrow hanging around the nest. They both look like they fly out of the juniper when I approach. I’m no expert but I doubt house finch males are that promiscuous. They both fuss at me, but from different trees.

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The eggs are non-descript. They don’t look like the chipping sparrow eggs we had in the spruce tree right next to the juniper about two years ago. Those eggs were definitely blue and the hatchlings were definitely sparrows. The only thing in that spruce now is what looks like it might be last year’s nest, from what I don’t know.

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House finch eggs are usually “pale blue and lightly marked”, according to my Birds of Iowa Field Guide by Stan Tekiela (2000). Lightly marked with what? Don’t think about it.