Back to nature

Nobody moved into my handmade bird house this year, but it's still providing a valuable function in our urban forest. See that big pile of morning glory vines at the corner of our backyard fence? The swallow house I built is buried underneath all that foliage!

I took this photo over a month ago, and the cluster has only grown thicker with time. This mighty bush grew from just five wimpy seedlings. It seems to be putting all its energy into bulking up the branches, producing only a handful of morning blooms. Meanwhile, all around our yard tiny morning glory plants are springing up, and burgeoning with dozens of flowers.

Brown-Headed Cowbird

The Internets are a perfect place for birding. I have yet to find a single comprehensive site, but I've gathered combined resources that help me identify tricky birds when my Beginner's Guide don't cut it.

The other day, I saw the weirdest bird. Stark brown head, and shiny black body with a tint of green. And the call was a cute, but strange, bubbling noise followed by a loud whistle. I was stumped until I stumbled across Wikipedia's image (above). It was dead-on exactly like the bird I saw, and Cornell's page has the call. Fun fact:

The Brown-headed Cowbird is the only brood parasite common across North America. A female cowbird makes no nest of her own, but instead lays her eggs in the nests of other bird species, who then raise the young cowbirds.

Brood parasites!