Weekend Of Red-tails

Sometimes, it's fun to live in our neighborhood. Oh sure, there are noisy neighbors, but there are benefits. Twice in the last week I have seen Sir Ian McKellen, once behind me line at the grocery store and tonight on our way to the movie theater (he's in town performing King Lear at the Guthrie). I didn't say anything at the grocery store, but tonight when I pointed him out to Non Birding Bill, he went over, greeted him and told him how much he enjoyed his work as an actor. He was really, really nice and very gracious. Can I say how much I enjoy just picking him out in the streets among all the other people? It's like finding a Ross's goose mixed in with a bunch of snow geese.

On to hawk banding!

Here's the man who makes my weekends of hawk banding possible--Frank Taylor! One of the coolest guys I know and the man who taught me to handle birds of prey and to give an entertaining yet informative program.

Well, it was a weekend chock full of red-tiled hawks at the banding station (that's a passage or first year red-tailed hawk in the above photo). On Saturday we got 7 birds (1 northern goshawk and 6 red-tailed hawks) and on Sunday we got 8 birds on (1 sharp-shinned hawk, 1 northern goshawk and 6 red-tailed hawks).

I think of all the birding things I do throughout the year, hawk banding is my favorite. I love everything about it, the fall foliage, the layers of cold to ward of the chill in the air, the waxy chocolate donuts we eat in the blind, watching the birds fly in, picking our raptors from the specks flying away.

We got to see some other wildlife besides raptors. We heard the crows going berserk on the other side of the field. Eventually, a coyote came into view. Rick Dupont got the above photo. They coyote kept coming closer and closer. Every time someone's camera beeped, the coyote would look right at us. Even with the wind blew and they coyote turned to sniff, if a camera beeped, it looked towards the blind. The coyote kept on its merry way and disappeared and suddenly as it appeared, followed by some noisy crows.

We even had a lone raven meander towards the blind. We watched this bird for the better part of Saturday morning, walking along through the grass snatching up lethargic grasshoppers. Periodically, the raven would hunker in the grass and sleep. After awhile, the raven would resume hunting grasshoppers. It worked its way closer and closer to the blind, oblivious to the many red-tails zooming over head, the half dozen people popping out of the blind, and even the noisy goshawk. When I watched it through my scope, it blinked both eyes in quick succession and not always at the same time. I've seen birds with West Nile Virus do this and wondered if that had struck this raven. The bird would let people get within 10 feet of it and then would fly. It had an ample food source and was wise enough to evade humans, so we didn't make too much effort to catch it.

There were also quite a few horned larks lurking in the grass. It was fun to watch them disappear and then reappear. A couple of northern shrikes hunting in the field would try to separate one of the larks to catch it, but to no avail, the larks were too fast. Another bird that hung out near the blind was a boreal chickadee. A small flock of black-caps flew in and one of them sounded a little nasally--instead of chickadee dee dee it was more of a chickashneeee. It hung out low in the trees and I got one of my best looks at one (alas, I didn't have the digiscoping equipment set up).

Even though we had almost all red-tailed hawks come in, each one had an interesting story. Like this bird. It was in haggard (adult) plumage, complete with red-tail (although the eyes were kind of half passage, half haggard). Note the blood mustache over the bill--this bird had eaten fairly recently. However, it did one of the most powerful dives into the nets I had ever seen. We actually almost missed this bird coming in. We were kind of chit chatting, someone had asked me a binocular question and looked out the blind window and said, "Well, 8x42's are good GASP..." and most everyone else saw it at the same time straight ahead, wings tucked, the bird going over 60 miles straight for the pigeon.

The red-tail blasted through the front net so fast and so hard it went all the way into the back net! Frank and Rick had to get the hawk out of two nets! Rick, ever the master yanker, did manage to pull the pigeon out of the way before the hawk nailed it. I did get to thinking though--if the nets hadn't been there, and this hawk was hunting the pigeon, it would have hit the prey so hard it would have blasted right into the woods. It would have rolled and tumbled and maybe slammed into a tree. That bird was intense. It wasn't skinny either, it had been eating well.

It's always interesting to see the differences in adults and young birds when you have the up close. Even without seeing the tail, you can know this is a young bird by how yellow the eyes are. Red-tailed hawk eyes get darker as they get older. So, above is passage red-tail...

and here is a haggard bird--look at how dark brown those eyes are! Speaking eyes, one of Frank's sub banders was up the whole week banding hawks and found an interesting one:

Chuck Schotzko got in this one eyed red-tailed hawk. Look at that, the whole entire eye ball is missing from the socket! Chuck is a medical doctor and guess with how dried out and healed up the injury is that this happened long ago, perhaps even when the bird was young. He speculated that this happened with the bird was young, even in the nest. It would be much easier for a young bird to learn to hunt with only one eye, than for an adult to suddenly lose an eye after hunting for years with two. Regardless, the bird was very chunky, the tissue around the keel was very plump--this bird had been eating well. If it can fly and is a good weight, there's no need to take it some place like The Raptor Center, this bird is doing just fine on its own.

Here you can see clear back into the empty eye socket. This really makes me wonder about birds in wildlife rehab facilities with only one eye that are turned into education birds or euthanized. This is the second red-tail we've gotten into the nets with vision in only one eye that was fat and sassy. Birds always remind me that they are more resilient than we give them credit for.

On Saturday night, I slept in Frank's van. He has a cot set up inside, so all I had to do was unroll my sleeping bag. I brought a pillow and stuck some hand warmers in the bottom to keep my toe warm. The stars crowded the skies and I was tucked warmly inside my sleeping bag and watched the sky. I was only disturbed once when someone drove slowly by shining a very bright flash light (I assume looking for deer). I set my iPod and iMainGo speaker to alarm so that I would wake up the next morning to the sound of bobolinks. I met Frank and his wife Trudi in their cozy trailer for hot chocolate and donuts, then it was off to more banding. It is nice to stay in hotels, but I have to say that I'm glad that I still have it in me to sleep in a van and use the woods for a restroom all for a cool birding experience!

This is one of the many red-tails we got in on Sunday, note the blood stains on the breast? This bird totally punk'd me! We were watching it in the distance and it hovered, it held its wings in a v-shape, the wings looked longish--I called it a rough-legged hawk. Until it flew into the nets and showed itself to be a juvenile red-tail. Later on, I tried to turn a kestrel into a merlin--I was having an off identification day. Maybe sleeping in a van dulls my bird id skills. Ah well, happens to all of us.

I did find a red squirrel lurking in the trees. It was surprisingly quiet. I suppose it noticed all the hawks flying in and decided that hunkering down and eating would be a sensible tactic instead of chirping and drawing attention to itself.

After we banded and released one of the many red-tailed hawks that came into the nets, it landed in the top of a spruce. As I set up my digiscoping equipment, it started to take off and I got this photo. But my favorite photos to get are the ones of me laying on the ground while people release the birds:

Like this...

Or this...

And this...

This was a little boy who got to release a red-tail. Since he was a tad short, I opted to take his photo from the side. The last thing I want is a face full of red-tailed hawk. He did a great job doing the release--that's a lot of bird for young boy.

I love this photo, that little boy looks like he's about to go into the sky along with the red-tail!

The Joy Of A Messy Fallen Oak

I am so loving the dead oak in Mr. Neil's yard! This may look like a bunch of dead boring branches, but it is teeming with life. It was struck by lightening and had to be felled and when the tree was down, I asked if he would mind leaving it there to do its decomposition thing. He agreed and this fall it has been sparrow town! I've been scattering seeds for sparrows all along the edges to encourage them to pop out, mostly white millet, flax, canary seed, sunflower chips, cracked corn, canola, and Nyjer.

The juncos have just been lovin' it. They will even perch on some of the branches and chill out for a bit, allowing you to get cute photos of them doing their impersonation of a fluffy puffball.

Others juncos just give you the sass. It's a fun challenge getting photos of tiny birds not at a bird feeder.

This week, the migratory sparrows have shown up in earnest. Even around my neighborhood I've found some lurking white-crowned sparrows. So far in the fallen oak I have found white-throated sparrows like the one in the above photo. They seem a tad cagey compared to the juncos, preferring to stay within the tree branches. They must have just arrived, maybe after a few days of refueling they will stay out in the open more.

Speaking of cagey, there is at least one fox sparrow lurking in the oak. The above photo was the best that I could do for a photo. I swear, that is the back of a fox sparrow. Really, it is. It's different than the other brown birds featured in this post. Honest.

This bird popping out for the sparrow mix surprised me. I would have thought they would be outta the state by now. It looks a little different from we're used to. Can you guess it? If you said chipping sparrow, you'd be right. The tree sparrows should be here very soon after these guys go.

The song sparrow in this awkward position is hoping that if it sits still enough, I won't notice and will aim my scope else where and it can enjoy whatever morsel it just found in peace. It's not every day you see a bird with it's tail caught in a branch--how embarrassing. Someone call Mr. Blackwell.

Sparrows aren't the only birds enjoying the fallen oak. The titmice have been grabbing leaves and pecking the heck out of them, there must be some type of bug or larvae lurking in there.

And it's not just the fallen tree itself that has been fun. You may have noticed in previous that we've turned the stump into a tray feeder and everybody has been using it (well, maybe not the hummingbirds, hard to put nectar on a stump).

And it's not just the brown birds either. I put some mixed nuts on their for the chickadees, titmice and nuthatches, but it's never long before a blue jay wants in on some of that action. They love their nuts.

I love this photo. That chickadee looks like it's thinking, "Well, there goes the neighborhood." There's now attractive way to mammal proof a stump, but we have all the other feeder poles mammal proofed so I'm not too bothered if the squirrels and chipmunks want to hoover up the seeds. Since this stump doesn't have much in the way of drainage holes, it helps to have birds and critters move the seed faster.

Chickadee Damage

I was trying my hand at digiscoping in the woods of tiny birds that move very fast. Not an easy feat. This was my best golden-crowned kinglet. It was fun to just hold in one spot and listen to the changes of bird flocks as they moved through in the morning having just flown in the night before looking for various food sources. One minute the woods are alive with sounds of hundreds of birds and just as suddenly as they appeared, they will disappear and ten minutes later the woods are silent. I first saw a brown creepers zipping up a tree and I thought, "Where's the kinglet, they seem to go hand in hand (or wing and wing)." Sure enough, a kinglet appeared on the branches, then more creepers and more kinglets.

I heard a "twee" that almost sounded like a towhee, but not quite. I scanned and found hermit thrushes lurking among the brush. They were taking advantage of the wild grape that has draped over some of the dead trees. Even though I was wearing a bright red sweater, I was standing still and the birds moved in fairly close. A mixed flock of chickadees and nuthatches moved in to the area and one chickadee flew right to me and at the end of my spotting scope. I couldn't see it, but new it was right in front of the objective lens at the end of the barrel (the big lens that lets in the light, not the small one you look through). I thought about turning on my camera and getting a very blurry photo, then I heard a "tap tap tap" coming from the chickadee.

I love chickadees. I won't argue that they are one of the cutest birds out there--look at that face in the above photo. What's not to love? But there is no pecking on a Swarovski 80 HD Spotting Scope! I shouted, "Hey!!" and the bird poked it's head above the barrel and suddenly noticed the big human attached its new found perch. It then jumped on top of the scope and gave a little sputter and flew to a nearby tree going into full blown mobbing sounds and angry "chick a dee dee dees!"

I looked at the lens and found no visible damage and was grateful that it's very sturdy equipment. I wondered if the Swarovski limited lifetime warranty covered chickadee damage...and how embarrassing would it be to call in and request repair because of a chickadee--"seriously, it pecked the lens, honest, the bird had it in for me." It'd be way cooler to say that your scope was damaged by something like a lammergeier who mistook the scope for a large bone. Although, I suppose it wouldn't help the Swarovski rep if the chickadee had damaged the scope. Bottom line, the scope is fine and a heart attack on my part was avoided.

I didn't get a good look at the feet, but I wonder if this was one of the chickadees we banded last weekend?

Bonus While Removing Buckthorn

And maybe just a tad of personal vindication.

This afternoon I was doing some half hearted buckthorn removal in Mr. Neil's woods. It needs to be done, but at the same time I was making mental apologies to the woods and wildlife that areas of thick brush would go through a drastic change but would be made up to them in future years with better plants. I fell in love with this woods the first time I walked through it. I remember the spot in the above photo being a particularly perfect place to find a saw-whet owl. Every single time I pass it, I comb the branches with my eyes for small owls but have never seen one there. I've even been taunted by a saw-whet owl feather a wren used in lining a nearby nest box.

Today, I found tiny owl poop beneath one of the trees. I started scanning the trunk but didn't have my hopes too high. After all, I have found owl poop before and no owl. I stood right on top of the poop and looked straight up. The branches revealed nothing. I took a step back and to the right. An oval shape and then vertical lines came into view--saw-whet owl! Finally, a saw-wet! I dashed back up the trail to gather my digiscoping equipment to get a photo of this tiny owl:

It was not the best light and the wee owly was not in the least bit threatened by me and continued its snooze. I left the scope on him and called Lorraine to see if she was working at the house. She was and I insisted that she join me on the trail to see an owl. How could she refuse? We both marveled at the owl and then it did the craziest thing! It woke up, faced away from us and started bobbing its head. We changed our position to get a better look. Without the scope, it looked as though it was about to cough up a pellet. But when I looked in the scope it was opening its mouth and moving as though it were making sounds? What was it doing?? Lorraine and I strained to hear and finally we made out very high pitched, almost inaudible squeaks and clicks--almost bat like. I tried to get a video, but there was no way to get the sound on that microphone. Here you can watch it move:

You know, I've worked with an education saw-whet owl at TRC and have never heard that sound or have seen or heard it in the wild. I couldn't find anything like it on BNA. I did find something sort of like it on Cornell's Owl CD (a must have for any person remotely into owls) and there are a couple of tracks on there listed as "unknown winter vocalization". If there are any owl experts out there who would care to share their knowledge of saw-whet owl vocalizations, I would love to hear it.

We waited for Mr. Neil to finish some writing and insisted that he and Cabal come join us to watch the owl before it got to dark. The owl didn't vocalize but took a direct interest in the large white dog. It's now night, and I hope the saw-whet is finding plenty of tasty mice and voles around the feeding area. I put out some extra bird seed on the ground to encourage small mammals for it.

I guess you never know what you'll find when removing buckthorn.

Watch Out, Finches

I have been trying to do this entry all day and so many cool and blogable things keep happening. I will do this and begin working on my very exciting discovery in the woods entry.

Okay, now we are getting some proper fall temps--blustery wind with fifty degree temps--now that is what I call buckthorn removal weather! On my way out to Mr. Neil's this afternoon, I noticed several raptors bouncing and soaring in the wind. Mostly red-tails and eagles, but peregrine went bombing over the highway in hot pursuit of something over the fields.

I have noticed a significant increase in purple finches at the feeder in the last few days. A family group had shown up a few weeks ago, but on Sunday when I was photographing the cedar waxwings, I could hear dozens and dozens in the surrounding woods. In the fall, they have such a quiet little chatter as they flit from tree to tree and squabble over perches at the feeder in can be easy to miss among the din of blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches and titmice.

I love this photo--it looks like the goldfinch is trying to eavesdrop on the male purple finches. "Hmmm, what are they plotting?"

Ron Pittaway, of the Ontario Field Ornithologists has an annual Winter Finch Forecast with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) and the observations of regional birders, Pittaway tries to make predictions about finch movement in southern Canada and the northern United States. Birds are always a tricky thing to predict, but this year I did notice an increase in purple finches, so I thought I would see what he had to say:

"Most Purple Finches will migrate out of Ontario this fall in response to the low seed crops. Currently, Purple Finches are migrating south through southern Ontario. Very few or none will stay behind at feeders in southern Ontario."

You should check the rest of the report, he describes conditions in the northern boreal forests and how that relates to individual species like redpolls, grosbeaks, finches and siskins. He does predict that white-winged and red crossbills and pine siskins will not be irrupting south out of Ontario as they do some years. However, other winter finches such as pine grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks and redpolls are supposed to get out of Ontario and down south into the United State.

It's been interesting to watch the purple finches interact with the other species. Here a male purple finch got into it with a black-capped chickadee--they are not very tolerant of other species feeding with them. When I worked at the bird store, customers would tell me that house finches drove other birds away, but I have never seen them be as aggressive as these thugs.

They're even hanging out on the tray feeder like this female purple finch and flushing away juncos. They're pretty, but man, don't mess with them.

Don't worry, goldfinch, you're still pretty too. Even in winter plumage. What's interesting is that the purple finches are seemingly preferring the sunflower feeders over the Nyjer thistle feeders, so the goldfinches do have a quiet place to feed at the moment.

Autumn Cedar Waxwing Goodness

Holy Crap! As I'm starting this entry, I'm sitting on our couch which faces the windows in our apartment. An adult Cooper's hawk has just landed on a wire outside the window and we are pretty much face to face. The hawk is having a tough time, she wants to focus on the pigeons eating near my feeder, but with the lights on in my apartment, she has also noticed the human facing her. I wonder if I can reach for my camera without her flying away? Nope. She just flew. Cool start to the morning though! Now, on to cedar waxwings:

Here is a cedar waxwing eating berries off of a showy mountain ash, or as Mr. Neil calls them, rowan trees. Now that there are great birds established on his land and thriving honey bees, we're trying to find ways to help both out by improving the quality of the surrounding woods.

The woods have some great plants, but some invasive buchthorn is moving in which in a few years will choke out all the great native plants like Jack-in-the-Pulpit and sumac. So, I know from reading books what plants birds like, but I don't have much in the way of practical knowledge--it's hard to put that into practice in a one bedroom apartment, but helping with the project will let me put some of that book learnin' to use. I found a nursery near Carpenter Nature Center that specializes in native plant landscaping called Out Back Nursery. The first time I went there just to look around, I noticed a guy named Pete staring at some pots of soil and some plant growth. After a few minutes, I went over and asked what he was up to and he replied, "My mix. There's something I'm doing wrong with my mix. These aren't growing the way they're supposed to, so I'm trying to figure out what I need to change in my soil mix."

That is my kind of guy--he feels about native plants the way I feel about birds. I found the right nursery. I also like how they group some of their displays by habitat. If you want to turn your yard into oak savanna, they have a whole grouping of the types of native plants that you would need for an oak savanna habitat. Nice! I highly recommend this place if you're looking for some native plant ideas.

So, I've gotten some trees from them to put in this fall, including this showy mountain ash that had a few berries left on it. The waxwings found it on Sunday. It was SO cool. Sunday, the light was perfect and the autumn leaves made for a lovely background for photos. I spent most of the day outside coughing and digiscoping. I watched a small flock of cedar waxwings fly over, kind of slow in mid flap, and circle over the feeding area--some bird in that flock noticed the bright berries. They circled a second time and landed high in an oak, carefully scanning the area for predators. After a few minutes, one by one, they descended on the showy mountain ash. The adult in the above photo is being watched by a younger waxwing.

The younger cedar waxwings are distinguished by the vertical striping down the front of their breast...and their lack of grace and elegance when scaling the branches for berries.

After watching an adult eat its fill of this cluster of berries, this younger waxwing struggled to reach the few remainders. You can't see it in the photos, but there was much flapping and slipping.

Eventually, the young waxwing figured it out and began to eat the last three berries.

The first two berries went down quickly, but there was some hesitation going for the last. Was the bird getting full? Had it eaten too much? But, never to leave an uneaten berry go uneaten, the young waxwing took the last berry.

Sure enough the bird's crop was bulging with berries after eating that last bite. See the pinkish blob along the neck? It may look like this bird has a huge tumor, but it's just a muscular pouch (now full of ash berries) used to store food awaiting digestion.

What's On A Downy Woodpecker's Mind

Technically, that answer is its tongue, but I just thought this was a cute photo. The goldfinch in the background looks like it's trying to freak out this downy woodpecker:

"I don't like the way that goldfinch is staring at me. Why is he staring at me?"

The Browniest Of Birds

A cool front has moved in and it's finally starting to feel like autumn. It was another busy morning banding birds at Carpenter Nature Center--when I arrived, they had taken 15 birds out of one net! Incidentally, CNC is selling apples from the orchard (Zestars) and have some you pick raspberries (as if the birding were reason enough to visit).

I'm finally to the point where I'm an actual helper, really banding the birds and taking them out of the nets. For a long time, I just documented the events, but I'm finally to the point where I can be of some real use. I felt like joined the big kid table somewhat because I got to band a small empid flycatcher. They can be agony to id in the fall--even in hand six inches from your face. But with some help it was determined that the above bird was a willow flycatcher. This flycatcher was so young, that as we were taking it out of the net, it started making whiny calls and fluttering its wings--food begging behavior (kind of an odd little avian Stockholm syndrome there).

A surprise for me was a cedar waxwing in the nets. Such a pretty bird, almost like a female cardinal with a lot of make up on...which I think I've probably stated more than once in the blog...an probably will again.

Someone's bringin' waxy back! Check out the waxy appendages on those secondary flight feathers. For those curious, BNA says that the red bits are colored by astaxanthin, a carotenoid pigment and increase in size and number with the waxwing's age. If they don't have any, they are likely immature waxwings.

Later in the morning, someone from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center came by with about 23 young mallards that had been raised in the waterfowl nursery. They are going to be released in a few days so we put bands on them. Interesting to note: if you hold a duck in just the right way, it can act as a very stinky squirt gun when it poops--just so you know.

The cool sunny day was so gorgeous, that I couldn't leave when we finished banding so I went out to take some photos. The prairie is glowing with late summer flowers. Above is a young song sparrow with its back to the wind. Take a look at the tail--feathers are still growing in.

A field sparrow popped up on some sumac, not too far from the song sparrow. As I was watching this bird, a second field sparrow flew in:

This one was carrying food. Curious, it chipped nervously while I walked the path and took photos. Eventually, it ducked down into the grasses and I could hear faint begging calls. Seriously? You guys went for another brood in Minnesota? It's early September, what's going to happen next week when the young fledge? Will you say, "Great, now that you've mastered flying five feet, you need to know that in the next couple of weeks, we're gonna fly a few thousand miles south...at night." I wonder if any studies have been done on migratory birds and multiple broods? Do birds hatched earlier in the summer that have had more time to master flight and catching food fare better than birds hatched late?

Another interesting thing about the second bird--it's wearing a band, it's been in the CNC nets at some point. Oh, and we had a very interesting retrap today--a female goldfinch who was originally banded SEVEN years ago. Incredible!

That concludes our regularly scheduled update of brown birds.

Hey, Did You Hear Something?

A white-breasted nuthatch and downy woodpecker surprise each other on the bird feeder.

Look at the wide stance on that nuthatch...perhaps it should be renamed Craig's nuthatch?

Wood Lake Digiscoping

So I headed out to do some digiscoping this morning. I didn't care what I would see, I just wanted to be out in some quiet.

I started at Wood Lake Nature Center and found some ducks still in their eclipse plumage. There wasn't too much action at first, I kept scanning the reeds hoping for even a great blue heron in good light. I stood and waited and thought to myself, just wait something interesting will pop up. As soon as I thought it, an adult red-shouldered hawk flew past--very cool, but not digiscopable. Then, a pied-billed grebe popped up out of the water--the closest I've ever been to one. I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or the grebe. The grebe paused and eyed me warily, I'm sure hoping that I hadn't noticed it mistake in resurfacing so close to a human. I wondered if I could get my camera off the scope and get a photo--it was entirely too close to digiscope. As soon as I moved, it dove back under water.

But, a female goldfinch was preening nearby and I was able to photograph her. I thought it was so cute that she was grasping a leaf for leverage to lean and get access to her wings--cute. I just love those little tiny toes grasping that leaf.

Speaking of goldfinches, Wood Lake has redone some of their gardens and the goldfinches were all over this plan. I'm not sure what it is, I'm going to guess prairie dock, but the finches were all over it. There at least three feeding on the plant in the above photo.

A male cardinal was perched near the finches. Take heart all you people with bald cardinals, here's proof that he feathers do grow back. If you notice, he's missing his crest but it looks like his feather shafts are growing back in. I got a question earlier this summer about a bald cardinal that looked like it had white skin instead of black. I wonder if that person was seeing the pin feathers growing in and not the skin? At a distance, several pin feathers look white. Here's a closer look at this male's head:

Plugs or Rogaine? No, it natural for the feathers to be growing back. Man, that's has to be a little uncomfortable to have a bunch of hard feather shafts emerging from your skin and fluffing out into feathers.

On my way out of the park, I spotted this Droll Yankee Big Top feeder. The bottom dish was supposed to be filled with black oil sunflower, but looked like it was full of grass. I took off the bottom dish and found:

A house finch nest! This is not the first time I've found a house finch nest in this feeder at Wood Lake. A few years ago, there were two nests side by side. One nest was empty and the other had smashed eggs inside. I'm not sure what that was about, was it two males competing for territory? Did the same pair build both nests? Who can say, but let this be a lesson to people who don't fill their feeders--the birds just may nest in them.