The little swallows who built a nest in our clematis vine are the proud new parents of five little baby swallows. I'm trying my hardest to get a good picture of them. Each time I go out, I have to shake the vine so the mama (papa?) will leave the nest. Then I lift some branches and stick my head into the vine for a close up look. They are soooo little!!
I'm not a bird fanatic, but I do love when they choose spots in my garden to build a nest. We have two birdhouses mounted on our fence, and this year both have nests. One may be an old nest (Did I clean it out last year???) as I haven't seen any birds going in and out. The other one has been the center of frequent activity.
hat is in our evergreen clematis plant. I shook the plant first in case the birds were there. It wasn't until I started lifting some branches that it flew out! It flew right into a nearby tree watching me. Soon, three swallows were circling around the area rather protectively. I took a couple quick pics of the nest and got out of their way!
So, after a few quiet days, my daughter and I decided to open up the birdhouse and remove the nest, cleaning it out for the next year. We slid it out, and placed it in a box (which is now on a shelf in the shed...can't throw it out, but don't know what to do with it!). Here is a pic of the nest still in the birdhouse:
e we had the nest in the box, we searched a bit to find any evidence of e
ggs. We only found one little egg, with a TINY hole it in. The only other egg we'd found was found on the ground a month or so ago. So, I'm now assuming that the little bird we saw peeping out of the whole for three or four days straight was the baby fledgling.
he 2 plum trees. They were there when we moved in, and are the only things we kept from the original owners' partial landscaping. The trees are decorative flowering plums which are gorgeous in the springtime. Bright pink blossoms all over. Though they are ornamental, every couple of years we seem to get a great crop of plums from them. This is one of those years. Tiny little plums are plentiful, and should be ready sometime in August. They're not the big juicy ones (like my favorite black plums) but have great flavor. The trees are big and full, providing part of our yard from some much needed shade. I only wish they were planted in the southwestern corner (rather than the northwestern corner) so we could get even more relief from the hot southwestern sun that beats down into our yard in the late afternoon.
shade of yellow.
ses at our
farmers' market every summer. I just loved them, and put them up for decoration, never thinking that anything would make its home in one of them. Well, sure enough....the little swallows call it home. Usually there are three of them that fly around the yard, perching nearby, going in and out for months making a nest. This year we definitely have babies in the house. If you get close enough you can hear the little chirps. They must be tiny, as the eggs are as small as a Jelly Belly. In addition to the birds, we also have a few garter snakes. At first they kind of freaked me out. After living peacefully with them for a few years, I actively look for them when I'm working in the yard. They keep their distance and slink away when they see us. This picture shows one of them under our patio table last 
week.
ids...
they're in, as they get about 5 feet high, and 3-4 feet wide. I have to stake them and keep them tied loosely together, otherwise they flop over onto the lawn.
