A Sad Spring Day

So this morning the city came and chopped down the very large, very old and very rotten oak tree across the street. I am pretty sure there were Downy Woodpecker and Northern Flicker families that just lost their homes. I am hoping that they hadn't already laid their eggs.
Tuesday morning a giant limb came crashing down at about 8am and went clear across the street, across the top of a parked car and right up to the front stairs of the house across the street. Thankfully no one was hurt. That is the time of day that all the kids are walking to school and commuters are heading to catch the bus so everyone truly was lucky. The city posted signs on Thursday about its removal and they were here by 7:30 today so I never got a chance to call City Hall to ask if they could wait till the breeding season was over. Not that they would have listened to me but it would have made me feel better that I at least tried. Human safety trumps non-endangered birds any day, but still it doesn't seem fair. I kind of feel that it is now like a game of musical chairs. All the good trees/homes have been taken and these birds now have nowhere to go and probably won't produce a brood this year.
I think I will add more suet cakes to the yard to make up for the lost homes. Again, the birds won't get the gesture but I will know that I am doing what I can for them.

Backyard visitors

I don't think I ever mentioned that I have tons of bird feeders, birdbaths and bird houses around the yard. This week parents have been bringing their 'kids' to visit. Here is a juvenile cowbird. He sat in that feeder for a good 10 minutes with no help from mom and dad and he wasn't at all concerned with the dogs hanging around.

Here is the whole nuthatch clan. Not sure if it was mom or dad but you can see one of the kids getting fed. This family makes me laugh. One of the kids flies from tree to feeder back and forth with its parent just begging for something to eat. But never attempting to get seed from the suet feeder himself!

Not the best picture but these downy woodpeckers move so fast it is the best I could get. This is the dad giving a snack to his young one. Mom was in and out days before flying from feeder to the tree out front. Leave it to the guy to go about it the lazy way!