Some finches built this nest inside this thing we have hanging on our front porch.


Mom bird started laying eggs. She stopped at five.


All five hatched.



My wife and daughter have been watching the nest like hawks. At some point this weekend they informed me that they hadn't seen mom bird around for two days and they were going to take over. I told them to just leave it alone, but when it comes to animals, they won't have anything but 100% chance of living. So they got onto the internet and learned about hand feeding baby finches. They've been feeding the babies. I've seen the mom finch around, but not nearly as often. Apparently those babies have three mothers now. They actually seem to be doing well.


There is a small bird house about 3 feet away that has another pair of finches nesting inside. That one just has a very small hole, so we can't see inside, but if you put your ear up to it, you can hear another nest full of babies. So we have potentially 10 baby finches on our front porch alone. My neighbor (who built the birdhouse) has at least 12 more bird houses around his property. You can't go anywhere on our property without scaring a finch out of some hidey hole. Oh yeah, both nests were built with a significant portion of duck and chicken feathers.

I've been seeing bats out front every night for several weeks as well. I think I'd like to get a few bat boxes up. Between the bats and dragon flies, the mosquito population has really come down.