Wildlife: Help With Expecting Mom, 1 by DreamOfSpring

DreamOfSpring wrote:
Hi billy, I think this is H-6 day. No, I've never seen the dad on the nest. From what I've read, he will only bring food to her, and later to the babies. His flaming red color would give away the secret location in a hurry. Her subdued color works really well; she blends nicely with the nest. Check out the photo below. Oh, and thanks for the compliment on the photos. Actually, I'm using a very powerful camera - and doing so very badly - but while the camera is capable of doing much better when "driven" correctly, it, none the less, raises my score considerably. (It has a dial with maybe 2 dozen settings; I only recently learned to used a second one.lol.and it's been a year) But the mockingbirds are not at all shy; they are the opposite of the cardinals, so they stayed put for a while allowing me quite a few attempts.

In the photo, her head faces right (toward the arbor), and her tail points left. I have noticed that she always sits in this same direction. Behind her is about 4-5' of rose thicket. I doubt anything could get through there in one piece. By sitting this way she has a good view of the 2 sides that are more open and of the lattice panel on the arbor (thats where I point the camera to get pics of the eggs so it's the most exposed and that's where her beak is!). You can barely make her out in the photo and then only because of the red line on her tail feathers and the red on top of her head.