Wednesday, April 14, 2010

2010-04-11 Sunday - Backyard

Sunday I went behind the garage to clean up the vines growing back there.  I think the majority of it is honeysuckle, but there are some other things mixed in there, including the dreaded porcelain berry.  I had a heck of a time extricating the mulberry from it.  The whole fence back there was covered and I pulled down and bagged about 15-20 pounds of vines all the while being buzzed by carpenter bees.  I tried to get a picture of the bees which sometimes hang in the air directly in front of you and stare, but I couldn't coordinate it with the camera and after about 20 minutes I abandoned the idea.

I got about half of the vines down and realized that I was hearing a bird fluttering around.  I stopped immediately and started looking for a nest.  It didn't take long to spot it with two tiny speckled eggs in it.  With a sigh I gave up cleaning the rest of the fence until the fledging is complete.  I grabbed the camera and being very careful not to touch the nest grabbed a couple of pictures before clearing out of there.  I hope to catch sight of the parents so I can find out what kind of birds they are.



Half of the vines down.

55 gallon drum liners full of vines.

The rest of the vines.

The nest with eggs.

They are very tiny.

Carpenter bees drill perfect holes.
You can actually hear them chewing.

Some attempts at catching the bees in flight.

The shadows are sometimes easier to see than the bees.


"Sharkey says: All of life comes from some strange lagoon. It rises up, it bucks up to it's full height from a boggy swamp on a foggy night. It creeps into your house. It's life! It's life!"


From the song "Sharky's Day" from Laurie Anderson's "Mister Heartbreak" cd. (lyrics)
copyright 1984 Warner Bros.

3 comments:

Penni said...

Could the eggs be hummingbird eggs? They are so tiny! Let us know who is using the nest! Glad we don't have those vines!

jbf said...

No, the bird I saw near the nest was small like a finch, but definitely not a hummingbird. When I have time I am going to spend some quiet time waiting for the parents to light.

Linda Starr said...

Great nature shots here and above, love the carpenter bees, they are so cool, I used to have them in my last garden and they did just like you say fly up to your face and let you know you're invading their territory. I put up blocks of wood predrilled for the bees to use as nests for their eggs.