Bird nest material dispenser - 2

I posted yesterday what becomes the 'part 1' now.  See older post.  I closed with the expectation that I would capture the tailorbird drawing cotton from the dispenser.  It had spotted the source within 2-3 hours of hanging it there.  I waited this morning as most birds are known to devote more time to search and shunt to and fro the new nest with the materials during the morning as it will be cooler.  Sure enough, at around half past seven, the tailorbird made a revisit.  I was about 20 feet away, sitting still, camera on the ready!

It had already made some trips by the time I spotted this - see how the cotton is disturbed.  I sat there after my morning coffee.

I must remodel this.  If the cotton moves down, it cannot perch and draw.  Here it can reach from the branch. 

I mentioned in my last post about my plan for another dispenser for fibrous material.  Here it is and that is why this is 'part 2'.  I had stiff copper wire.  About 2 metres were required to coil it using a long-neck PET bottle. a tip I got in the link given in the previous post. I used a centre wire to hold the top and bottom at the same distance and this serves as the hanger also.  I needed this to prevent the copper coil from stretching down. 

I thank my squirrel that had collected all those jute thread fibres available for it when the construction activity was going on previously and the workers had used the jute threads for scaffolding.  There were some longer pieces of rope also in the squirrel nest!  Ask me where it had made.  It was on the bedroom window, in the gap between the insect screen and the always-closed bottom-half wooden window, safe from rain and sun.  I had removed and kept the entire abandoned nest in some corner.  It came in handy for this more than 6 months later.  Now I'm waiting to see if they need the fibres.  I'll put some thread pieces and may be cotton also here.

Bird nest material dispenser -1

Some months ago while browsing for some ideas of a bird house, I bumped into a site wherein a bird nest material dispenser was featured.  It was something like this: See the link having a very brief  post.  It was a project I could make and I knew it was needed for our little feathered friends as well, in particular, the tailorbird. 

April to August is supposed to be the nesting season for the tailorbird and yesterday I saw this:

I thought this is the right time to provide them some easy pickings for their nesting endeavours.  I found a no-longer-in-use bill holder.  Bills were pierced through the top of the wire and pushed down to the wooden stand, which is actually a base of my grandfather's trophy which is in the showcase.  The base was too big for the rack.

I poked some surgical cotton which I keep in the first-aid box and some thread in the form of cleaning waste cotton [red thing] which is very thready.  I thought the birds would like them. This is a beginning experiment.

Since the item was ready, it took no time to install.  I hung it around noon on the hibiscus plant where the tailorbirds frequent.  And in the evening, I saw the cotton being pulled from different sides!  I had later hung it on the curry plant as I could view it clearly from the room window.  Usually in the mornings they are more active collecting materials. Let me see if I can catch them on camera, picking [with thanks] cotton.

I now plan to add some coconut fibre and jute thread and do what you saw in the link I gave in the beginning.  I will be trying to improvise on this project.

I had already made a post on the nests with images.  See it here. [Click]

Playful Spotted Doves

Spotted Doves are among the common birds in our locality.  I have not observed where their nests are.  But I reckon their nests to be in my neighbour's large trees.  The first thing I hear in the morning as soon as skylight appears on the horizon, is its unique 'bubbly calls' from above the bedroom roof tiles.  It's here!

They are enjoying my yarden where they find something to search on the ground or to peck in the grass.  My grass is the naturally growing Cynodon dactylon - Bermuda grass as it is called.  

[ Old picture ]

I have also provided some water sources for the birds which they need very much. Though there is an exclusive bird bath where other birds visit for a dip or a drink, these doves prefer to use the larger stone trough for their drink.  The vintage trough contains water lilies.

[Old picture of the trough without the dove on it]

Yesterday morning I saw a couple of them in a very playful mood, first on the plastic roof, then on to the electric cable before they hopped on to the Almond tree where they can find a flat area like a 'helipad' [the chopped portion of the huge tree that had grown very tall.  When they fly, their lovely black and white tail feathers show up in a fan like shape.  Enjoy some pictures.

Hop and land

All wings

That's not a trampoline, but electric line.

Now you hop.

Done.

  

Look at the tail feathers.

Shouldering responsibility.

Relax!  

Since they were in a different mood, I could stand and capture some images.  At other times, when they visit, they fly away on sighting me from a distance. They are quick to fly away but the cat is faster.  Cats capture them if they go where they are hiding in wait, either from behind the water trough or a little bush.  They seem to know when their 'food arrives'.  Many have succumbed, but that is Nature's food chain.  Yet, I was uneasy the whole day it happened in front of my eyes.  We do not feel for it when a toad catches an insect, but this was a bit hard.

A Sunday in the Yarden

Yesterday, my pots section looked like this [picture below].  Today it looks better.  I decluttered the area by discarding a few cacti pots in little pots mercilessly.  I also thinned down the overgrowing offshoots of the now flowering orchid plants you see in the corner. This was long overdue. I also had to repot a couple of potted cacti that I want to retain for some more time.

To relax, I brought out the camera and lazed away.  In the bargain, I got to see these:

An Impatiens flower glowing in the sun. 

 A little bee rests on the Water lily petal in the pond.

There is something new I see at the pond each time I go with the camera!   This is my ten thousandth shot... or so it seems!  Five were on show today.

On the hyacinth leaf in the pond, this is a common sight.  A tiny Coromandal Marsh Dart - a damselfly perches as the sun was shining bright.

Close by is the Aechmea gamosepala.  Amazing colour combo.  A couple of those buds were open today.  

This little kitty was hiding in a cement pipe. I wanted to take a snap of it jutting its head out of the pipe, but it would not move from inside.  It was scared of my presence.  It had chosen the pipe as a good hiding place.  Who taught it to go and hide there?  This kitty is just a few days old.  I shot it when inside the pipe.  

It had come out when I was not seeing. So I missed that shot.  It's calling its mother who was around.

 Minutes later, I found it in my junk shed.  They learn to climb! 

See here!  Precariously perched at the edge of an old Charaka.

In the afternoon, I heard the tailorbird making noise. It does like that when Sunbirds also sometimes visit at the same time. But since I had the camera ready, I noticed a 'new bird'.  The tailorbird was trying to chase it away from 'its territory'!  Tailorbird is above with its olive-green wings. 

This bird does not visit my yarden regularly. This was the first time I saw.  I glanced for some clues in the Book of Indian Birds that was gifted by a kind friend on Dave's Garden, Shirley.  But was not sure. So, as always, when in doubt, I posted an image on the forum and it was very soon identified thus: The one that's common in southern India is Clamorous Reed Warbler Acrocephalus stentoreus. A bit out of its normal habitat (papyrus beds), so I'd suspect it's a recently arrived winter visitor from a bit further north that hasn't found its preferred habitat yet (that's probably why you've not seen one before!).  

With that clue, I checked it in the book which lists it as Great Indian Reed Warbler. An entry was there sans images.   So I added a few. [click].  That's how quick DG is!  A couple of images:

I missed where it flew off when I was looking at my camera for a couple of seconds.  The tailorbird had stopped shouting!  And I was lucky to be there when this arrived.