(no subject)
In Which I am a Surrogate Spouse and Parent to a Bird Family
This is one of the many reasons that I barely have time to even look at things online lately, much less post:
See our front porch? See that thing in the upper left corner of it that looks like a splattered turd ball?
It's not a turd ball. It's a barn swallow's nest.
It was made by one of these:
We live in a rural area, and in the spring and summer there are barn swallows everywhere. They eat about a gazillion mosquitoes a minute, along with any other insect they spot, but unfortunately they sometimes swoop close to the ground to catch them...and end up being caught themselves by our cats.
And that's what happened to this gal's husband. The pair of them had almost finished construction of their nest, and after the poor male's demise, the female completed the job, ferrying mouthfuls of mud from the nearby pond and packing them along the nest's rim. Then she laid five eggs in the nest, and I began to be extremely concerned. Some research confirmed my suspicion that she was going to die from exhaustion trying to feed all those babies by herself, if she managed to successfully hatch the eggs by herself at all. See, normally one parent stays on the eggs most of the time, while its mate catches and delivers mouthfuls of insects to it to feed it. This lone parent would have to leave the eggs uncovered a LOT, in order to fly out and feed herself. Then if any babies managed to hatch, she'd be without a mate to help her feed them.
So I rigged up a water cup and a food cup beside her nest:
(Note visible Product Placement. McDonald's and Braum's are official sponsors of the Avian Widders & Orphants Association of Northeast Texas.)
I keep the food cup filled with live mealworms (purchased from the pet shop), and so far Mom Swallow is happily gobbling them up -- now she no longer has to leave the nest to eat. I also bought some cubes of frozen "blood worm" insect larva (normally used to feed tropical fish), and when the chicks hatch I'll thaw those out and feed the already-pulpy stuff to the chicks as often as possible -- it'll be soft enough for them to digest, and hopefully keep them healthy and full enough to prevent Mom Swallow from dropping dead of a heart attack. I'll also move the water bowl further out and lower its water level, so the babies won't accidentally flop into it and drown.
Wish us all luck, everyone!
This is one of the many reasons that I barely have time to even look at things online lately, much less post:
See our front porch? See that thing in the upper left corner of it that looks like a splattered turd ball?
It's not a turd ball. It's a barn swallow's nest.
It was made by one of these:
We live in a rural area, and in the spring and summer there are barn swallows everywhere. They eat about a gazillion mosquitoes a minute, along with any other insect they spot, but unfortunately they sometimes swoop close to the ground to catch them...and end up being caught themselves by our cats.
And that's what happened to this gal's husband. The pair of them had almost finished construction of their nest, and after the poor male's demise, the female completed the job, ferrying mouthfuls of mud from the nearby pond and packing them along the nest's rim. Then she laid five eggs in the nest, and I began to be extremely concerned. Some research confirmed my suspicion that she was going to die from exhaustion trying to feed all those babies by herself, if she managed to successfully hatch the eggs by herself at all. See, normally one parent stays on the eggs most of the time, while its mate catches and delivers mouthfuls of insects to it to feed it. This lone parent would have to leave the eggs uncovered a LOT, in order to fly out and feed herself. Then if any babies managed to hatch, she'd be without a mate to help her feed them.
So I rigged up a water cup and a food cup beside her nest:
(Note visible Product Placement. McDonald's and Braum's are official sponsors of the Avian Widders & Orphants Association of Northeast Texas.)
I keep the food cup filled with live mealworms (purchased from the pet shop), and so far Mom Swallow is happily gobbling them up -- now she no longer has to leave the nest to eat. I also bought some cubes of frozen "blood worm" insect larva (normally used to feed tropical fish), and when the chicks hatch I'll thaw those out and feed the already-pulpy stuff to the chicks as often as possible -- it'll be soft enough for them to digest, and hopefully keep them healthy and full enough to prevent Mom Swallow from dropping dead of a heart attack. I'll also move the water bowl further out and lower its water level, so the babies won't accidentally flop into it and drown.
Wish us all luck, everyone!