New Birds

June: A Month for Families

June is a special month!

Graduations, baseball, vacations, summer wildflowers, Father’s Day! So many things to share that bring families together.

For Nature, June holds the same promise. Wildlife families are forming and they are becoming a part of your family’s world, too.

On the hillside beside the house, spotted fawns are making their first appearance at their mother’s side, young raccoon kits emerge at dusk to partake in their family’s nightly search for food, and chubby little groundhog pups forage together fearlessly in the backyard during the early morning hours.

Birds are in a family way, too….and the next generation of youngsters are making their first appearances everywhere around your yard!

A Bluebird father is in a frenzy trying to keep his first brood fed…while mom is already tending to a second clutch of eggs in the backyard nest box. Dad seems to be in non-stop action, bringing food to his five youngsters…while also feeding mom as she incubates their new eggs.

Shaggy-headed juvenile Chickadees chase and harass their parents as they try to grab a quick bite to eat at your backyard feeders. Clumsy House Finch fledglings try desperately to imitate their parents in mastering the art of landing gracefully on the perch of a tube feeder.

Tiny House Wrens, in constant motion, sneak around the yard searching under every leaf and exploring every crevice for insects to feed their noisy, chattering nestlings in the nest box hung on the garage wall.

And the woodpeckers…imagine the joy of watching as Pileated parents successfully coerce their recently fledged youngster to join dad on the tail-prop suet feeder. Or watching a male Red-bellied Woodpecker, repeatedly flying back-and-forth to share bits of suet with his offspring hiding on the backside of the big oak tree. Not to mention the waves of Downy Woodpecker families constantly parading through the backyard…with the juvenile males already identifiable from their dainty and ill-defined red-colored head markings.

Yes, June is a special month when Nature can bring the gift of a new generation of birds and wildlife into your backyard. Be ready to welcome them with the food, water, and habitat they need to have a bright future in the years to come.