A cowbird and a Muscovy nest!

Today was a special day when two exciting things happened in the backyard.  The first was the appearance of a new species and that is always a happy event.  This morning I noticed a female red-winged blackbird at the feeder accompanied by a different bird that was a little smaller than her.  She seemed to be feeding the bird from time to time, or perhaps arguing with it.  I wasn't close enough to tell.  But the other bird turned out to be a brown-headed cowbird.

Cowbirds are an odd species of bird in that they often lays their eggs in the nests of other birds of different species and expect the other birds to hatch and care for the young.  This is called "parasitizing" the nest.  Sometimes they get away with it and the other birds do the job for them, but sometimes they realize it's not their baby and evict it from the nest either before or after it hatches.  The mother cowbird who did the laying comes back to check on her egg and takes revenge on birds who don't care for her babies.  The whole thing is kind of outrageous.  So I was wondering if the female red-winged blackbird had actually hatched this cowbird and was feeding it as if it were her very own.  Could be, I guess.

Are you my mother?

In other exciting news, Muscovy duck female Cutie2 has built a nest in the front yard in a corner under some bushes.  There were about 6 eggs in it two days ago and possibly more buried under the feathers.  There was one on the ground outside it.  I hope that doesn't mean something has disturbed it already.  The eggs in the nest are cradled in down feathers.  She was not sitting on it when I first saw it but later in the day she returned to it.  It was odd but I have seen several males standing or sitting in the front yard near the eggs over the last few days, including Lazlo and the handsome male.  I wondered what they were doing there, but maybe they were guarding the nest.  Or maybe they were waiting on a chance to mate with Cutie2.  A lot of males have been doing that lately.  Female Muscovies usually lay an egg a day for about 2 weeks before beginning to sit on the nest full-time which triggers the beginning of development.  It might be the case that they mate a lot during this laying period.  The actual incubation of the eggs is a long process that might not be over until Thanksgiving.  I hope it all works out.  Fingers crossed for Cutie2.  This is probably her first clutch of eggs as she is pretty young.

The nest has some eggs in it and one is misplaced

Cutie2 is probably laying another egg

Yesterday Cutie2 visited the nest just once during the day so I think she is still laying.  A male was watching her and he eventually rousted her from the nest and he followed her into the canal where he mated with her.  When he was done, Red Eye tried to jump her to mate but she went under water to avoid him about 5 times and he never got a chance.  The poor girl needs some peace.  As for the nest, when Cutie is gone you can't see any eggs now as they are all covered with down feathers.

Today Cutie sat on her nest most of the morning and was back in the afternoon after eating.  I gave her a nice pile of seeds for herself to make sure she eats well for the busy time ahead.  It's possible that the official incubation period has started and she's finished laying.  If so, she will be there for 23 hours a day.  What a chore!

After two days of daily visits, Chirpie and her two Muscovy ducklings missed coming to the backyard today.  That's usually a bad sign.  Hopefully I just missed them and nothing has happened.

The Muscovy juveniles have visited daily.  The other day I saw the 4 of them in the backyard sitting under the ficus bush by the pool pump without their mom!   They were just waiting quietly for breakfast.  I put some food out there for them and they ate hungrily but there was no sign of mom.  I guess she is teaching them some independence.  There were no big Muscovies there to interrupt their eating, just a few mottled ducks and the young gallinule without the red face.  The juveniles returned with mom at midday.  They have grown so much they are just as big as some of the mottled ducks.  And they are a little bigger than our call duck Colson.

Colson is still spending his time in the company of his mottled duck pal.  He is now the smallest duck in the backyard except for Chirpie's new babies.  He's become a mutterer, liking to talk while he eats.  He comes close to me and follows me around looking for food.  When I give him some of his own, he gobbles it down until someone else chases him off.  Pretty much everyone picks on him except the Muscovy juveniles whom he gets along with as they are almost the same size.  That won't last as Colson is full grown and the juveniles are only halfway there.

Muscovy females Pretty Girl, Sweetie, Blackie2 and Smiley are all among the missing.  We are really short of girls and overrun with boys.  We only see Cutie2, Cutie Tips and sometimes a few harem girls. 

We have been seeing a lot of red-winged blackbirds, both males and females, at the feeders these days.  One of them was really acrobatic stretching pretty far to steady his food.  He has the characteristic red and yellow patch on his shoulder that marks a male.

I hope I didn't pull something

 The Egyptian geese have been visiting daily, usually several times a day.  They always announce their arrival with a lot of loud honking (the female) and huffing (the male).  The other day Muscovy Lazlo confronted the male and jumped at him to fight like the ducks do.  The goose backed off from the food that Lazlo wanted.  Score one for Laz!

After a day away, Ani the anhinga was back on her dock post resting and drying her wings.  And the painted bunting is still around, making occasional visits to the bird feeders.  The pigeon has been here too; he tends to eat on the ground.  I've never seen him at the feeders.  I think he's too fat to even try them.

A small tricolor heron has been visiting lately and has been on the boat, or on the dock or down by the beach along the canal's edge.

Nice day for a boat ride

Finally, our one remaining squirrel systematically emptied out her feeder of peanuts today and I caught her burying one in my front yard.  I hate when they do that.