Sunday, June 7, 2009

The Nest at Big Horn




Okay, so we went camping this weekend at the Big Horn Ranch. Kerry had built a bird house last summer and we hung it on a tree by the fire pit in our camp. When we went up to move the trailer in, we noticed that the bird house was stuffed with twigs and the seams were coming apart. Kerry made the comment that maybe a family of mice had moved in - I suggested chipmunks as a possibility. Anyway, Kerry pulled the birdhouse down and pried off one side only to find a bird nest with 7 to 8 eggs inside. We snapped a couple of pictures and assumed that the nest had been abandoned. We called Kadee down from the swing to see it. She peeked inside and quickly asked, "Are those mouse eggs? Oh wait, mice don't lay eggs." After we regained our composure, I pulled out one egg to get a better look and told Kerry that it felt warm. His response was that it was just a warm day. Kadee held the egg and snapped a couple more pictures. After Kadee put the egg back inside, Kerry nailed the side back on and hung it up on the tree again.
About 15 minutes later we saw a Momma-bird and a Daddy-bird fly in and the Momma-bird went inside to sit while the Daddy-bird sat on the roof for a bit and then went off (bug hunting, I suspect). We think that they are some kind of Mountain Finch or mouse-bird, we're not sure...

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