This thread has been quiet. I know our birds are not as active here. I saw the Sedge Wren today and photographed him. I guess he was willing to be seen because of the rain and knew I still would not be able to get decent photos.
I've been going through older photos and found this favorite from March of 2013.
We started seeing Kestrels around our place and because they need habitat, we put up a nesting box at the south edge of our property. We were thrilled one day to see a male show up, and later a female. They liked each other.
One snowy afternoon, we happen to look outside and see shapes in our attempt at a nesting platform for Barn Swallows. Nothing ever used it until this point, not even wasps. Later, we found out Barn Swallows want more coverage above them, like in a barn or under a porch roof. This was maybe 50-70 feet from the house.
Getting binocs, we saw the Kestrel pair. We used two different cameras to take pictures. With the outside conditions, there was no hope of anything clear, but it is enough to show the cute couple. They stayed there the rest of the day and overnight. Before dark, they took turns hunting. They didn't even leave when we let the dog out. And of all days for him to have digestion issues!!
The next morning, one left us a gift, a pellet that I still have today. It was the beginning of my collection. No, it is not poop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The female is on the left in the photo. And why did they use this instead of the box? I don't know, other than possibly birds view the boxes as a place to lay eggs, not protection from the elements and she wasn't ready for egg laying. (I wish our shrug fellow didn't look so sad, I would have used him here.)
We had a female Kestrel that stayed last winter, her choice of overnight roosting was an old Barn Swallow nest in a 3-sided building we have. I never got a picture of her in it, but we knew she was there as she flew out if we approached and there was a grand pile of pellets and other leavings below the nest.
