Mistaken Identity

This month the flowering shrubs and trees were especially gorgeous in their fancy party dresses.

My redbud tree has never looked as dazzling ...

... flowering weeks before it even leafed out!

This cherry tree was planted at least forty years ago.

 

After a relatively mild winter with well below average snow fall, May was exceptionally wet. In fact, a pond has appeared and looks set to stay in the farm field across the road. The owners are quite fastidious in their agricultural practices so I'm sure they are not pleased. However, the birds love to skim and wade around this dandy facility.

The pond across the road reflecting a blue sky.

 

It's lovely to see the birds in full production of their next generations.

A satisfied customer at my desert station.

Such teeny, tiny feet!

Barn swallows are again nesting in my garage. 

A dove watches from her vine surrounded nest.

 

Quite a few years ago I put this plastic bottle around a feeder pole to discourage chipmunks and squirrels. (They have their own feeding station.) Despite it's age, it is still too slippery for the little rodents to scale and after a few frustrating attempts they give up trying.

Momma squirrel heads for the bird feeder.

Dead end! Forget about it!

 

Oh, and about the title of this post --

So there I was, sitting in a comfortable passenger seat and enjoying the scenery with friends on a recent day trip.

Passing by a nursing home, I noticed four beautiful new purple martin houses on the grounds. And low and behold, there were a few purple martins on all of the structures.

They are uncommon in my area, so I vowed to drive back later and have a better look at them.

A week later, my brother and his son came by and I suggested we drive the four or five miles to where I spied the birds.

I grabbed a camera (wish I'd remembered the binoculars) and away we went.

There they were again, about 3 or 4 birds per colony with males standing guard beside their chosen compartments and burbling their swallow type songs. 

But the houses were in the lowered, inspection position. With no sign of a human around, carrying out maintenance. And the birds weren't flying but just standing sentry beside the entrances. My nephew thought they seemed depressed about their nesting quarters being so close to the ground. Perhaps, he ventured, the person responsible for the bird boxes lived at the nursing home and had passed away.

Strange, I thought, why would anyone go to the expense and effort of erecting those nice bird houses and not have them hoisted up the pole, well away from predators. In fact the houses were in the same 'down' position as the week before.

I snapped a few photos from the distance of the car park so as not to disturb them and then we drove home.

Hours later, I downloaded my photos and what I saw gave me a good laugh.

Talk about mistaken identity!!! 

One of the four purple martin houses.

A male guarding an apartment.

Surprise!!! Just plastic decoys and a sound track playing to entice real birds!