The Buntings Bide Their Time

It was all well and good to have indigo buntings around the yard. I did begin to wonder when they were planning to get down to the business of producing more indigo buntings!  The summer was wearing on.

Piper made sure he always looked his best. Puttin' on my top hat...

During the 8-day power outage the first week of July when the electric fountain wasn't operating, I made him an acoustic bath, which he gladly used. Well, Piper and about a hundred other birds. 

The storm zapped the Spa pump and I had to replace it. What didn't I have to replace after that storm?The day I hooked the new pump up and plugged it in, I literally felt my heart start beating again. I'd been bereft without the sound and sight of birds bathing in moving water.

You felt bereft? If I don't get four baths a day in sparkling clean water I feel absolutely worthless.

Just as avid in her appreciation of our backyard amenities was Mrs. Piper. Here she is!

She'd slip in when nobody was looking and have herself a good soak and flutter. I think Mrs. Piper is a young bunting, perhaps born in 2011. She shows only the barest hint of blue on her rump and shoulders. An older female would have a pretty good blue shoulder and rump.

She doesn't have to be blue. I'm blue enough for everybody. 

It seems other birds were waiting to breed, too. I heard a racket and fluttering in the birches above my head on July 31 and witnessed this:

A male American goldfinch coughs up some regurgitated seeds for...

No, not his baby, but his mate.

Courtship feeding often precedes copulation, so I knew the goldfinches were finally readying themselves for breeding. The weed seeds were coming ripe; the birch cones were starting to dehisce. It was time for seed-eating birds to nest.

And by an utter fluke, I caught Mrs. Piper carrying nesting material to an undisclosed location near our garage. This photo was taken on July 30, my Big Day of Bird Photography. Keep hitting "Newer Post" when you've seen that one. Because it was redonk, and gave me fodder for four posts!

I was beside myself to capture this moment, and only hoped I might find the Pipers' nest.

"Serendipity favors the prepared mind."--Louis Pasteur