#nest-building

[dessertbird]

Moorhen family life

Eurasian Moorhen Gallinula chloropus

Family stays together - adults, juveniles and downy chicks. Browner juveniles help rear their younger siblings.

[nhm-hungary]

“The A-Team” are now busy with nest-building  🐦🦅🌿🍂🍁🐣

/ A Szupercsapat szorgosan építi fészkét. 

Photo by / Fénykép: Fuisz Tibor

[frothytundra]

Here’s something I bet you didn’t know:  more black-billed magpies get divorced in Alberta than they do in South Dakota. It’s true. They usually mate for life unless one of them dies and then the remaining magpie may find another mate. Divorces do happen, though, and one seven-year study found divorce rates up to 63% in Alberta. A similar study in South Dakota found divorce rates of only 8%.

Black-billed Magpie from Dan Dzurisin via Flickr

I wonder if they have better bird-marriage guidance counselors in South Dakota, or maybe there is a social condemnation of bird-divorce. Probably, though, it’s the weather. You can’t get out much in an Alberta winter and we all know what it’s like to have too much together-time.

It is also interesting to note that black-billed magpies build nests together as couples, but only one of them occupies each nest. This is, in my view, an excellent arrangement. In my street right now the magpie nests are clearly visible because we do not yet have leaves on the trees. Some of these nests are huge and I went online to find out why they are so big. The birds themselves are quite big, so that is a part of it, but also sometimes new nests are built on top of old nests.

We see lots of magpies here, and in the spring they can get quite aggressive in defending their nests. It is not unusual for them to dive-bomb at people’s heads if they feel threatened. They can also be a nuisance if they eat food left out for backyard picnics or barbeques. On the whole, though, they are useful in cleaning up edible rubbish and eating insects.

Black-billed Magpie In Flight from Paul Moody via Flickr

At first glance, they appear to be mostly black and white, but when they are in flight their glorious blue and green colours show.

The moral of this story is that you can build a home with your mate and make babies, but there is no guarantee you will stay together forever. In Alberta, in fact, the odds are that you will not, even if you live in separate homes. It doesn’t matter how pretty your plumage may be, you will still be looking for a new mate and making a new nest somewhere at some point. Sigh.

  Magpie Nesting Habits and Divorce Rates Here's something I bet you didn't know:  more black-billed magpies get divorced in Alberta than they do in South Dakota.

[holliswoodny]

THE END OF THE WAR ON THE POND - Marilyn Armstrong

THE END OF THE WAR ON THE POND – Marilyn Armstrong

And when the nest-building and love-making are done, as the long spring afternoon stretches ahead, Mr. Mute-Swan stretches his wings and heads over to the other side of the pond to harass the demon Geese who stole his nest. No matter that he has built a new nest and it is a fine nest.

“Never forgive, never forget” is his motto. He will get the geese out of the pond. There is no forgiveness…

View On WordPress

[resplendence-manifest]

Birds looking for nest-building materials

[morcellement]

Enjoying maternity leave

35weeks 0 days

It’s been a week since my maternity leave started and I’m really feeling great. I already could tick of some stuff from my To Do List and still can relax in between.

Yesterday I spend all day sorting the baby clothes I got from a friend. At first it was a total mess - I had 5 boxes where clothes of every size where mingled (sizes ranging from Newborn up to 3T). But now it’s all categorised and the small stuff is already in the drawer :). 

I also got the time for some exercise and feel much better physically (only complaint I have is that my hands a bit swollen and are feeling hot most of the time).

There’s still some stuff to do and hubby is on a business tripp, so I hope little one stays in the belly the next two weeks. In the evenings I had some minor contractions in the evenings - but they always went away when I got into bed. But just in case labor starts I’ve already talked to a senior physician in my old department whom I trust and he agreed to attend the delivery. The bag for hospital is also packed -> if little one decides to come, it’s all set :).

20th of April 2018

[haikurules]

Haiku 7 April 2015

it's busy out there; birds - building, saquabbling, singing - and me? much the same

[triviaproofing]

#124: “Males bowerbirds build and decorate nests to be used exclusively for mating. They ornament the nests with flowers, bits of string, berries, feathers, even pieces of glass or brightly colored papers. After these decorations are in place, the male bowerbird paints the entire nest with blueberry juice that has extracted by pressing the berries in his beak. After the courtship and mating have taken place, the nest is deserted and a separate one is constructed for rearing the young.”

Basically true, but details are iffy.

The bowerbird’s mating ritual is a bit more complicated than that. There are actually two parts: the nest-building and the dance from the male. The male usually does a dance for the female when she comes to see his bower. Younger females will pick the prettiest nest, while older females will go for the best dance. The female also builds the nest before choosing a mate. However, I didn’t see much about the materials needed to make the nest.