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Common Yellowthroat

July 17, 2012   Birds, Maine Outdoors, Nature

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I made a terrible mistake last week. Tammy and I were cutting garlic scapes when I found what I thought was a mouse nest. Before taking a second to think about it, I reached through the scapes and grabbed it. “It” was a nest with two almost ready to fledge common yellow throats. I felt terrible. I moved it six or eight inches before I realized what I’d done. The small birds tumbled to the ground and ran in different directions. The nest was just a few inches from the ground and the garlic is very thick after not being harvested last year. I wasn’t thinking.

A common yellowthroat with a meal in its beak.

I scrambled to put the nest back where it belonged, scooped a baby and placed it in the nest. It promptly hopped out and ran off again. I moved the nest to the ground, checked the carefully for the bird and backed away. They weren’t going to stay in the nest so I hoped for second best, that they’d return to the nest if I left them alone.

Both parents have been feeding the babies on the ground. They didn’t return to the nest. I hear them and see the parents disappear into the same place in the next row often. I’ll wait to cut the the scapes near their hiding spot until after the leave the…hiding place.

This common yellowthroat spends several hours in the early evening signing from a branch in our bonfire pile. We won’t be having a fire until I’m sure there isn’t a nest hiding away.

To the official site of Related Posts via Taxonomies.