Cowbirds

I had a dilemma yesterday. I found a cowbird egg in my Eastern Phoebe nest. You can see the cowbird's egg sitting with the phoebe's smaller white eggs in the nest. Cowbirds are brood parasites, laying their eggs in other birds' nests. They tend to hatch before the other eggs so they get a head start on being taken care of by the host bird and sometimes the other chicks end up starving as a result.

We have lots of cowbirds and they are crowding out the other birds at the feeders. So, I found this cowbird egg yesterday. What do I do? Do I leave it or get rid of it? We have some great birds here. Everything from Painted Buntings, Golden fronted Woodpeckers, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, various Finches, Wrens, Barn Swallows, Cardinals, hummingbirds, mourning doves, turkey, etc. So far, I only know the location of the Phoebe nest, the Barn Swallow nest and the Carolina Wren's nest. There are no eggs in the Barn Swallow's and Wren's nests. I'll keep checking on that.

Well, I did do something about the egg. I have mixed feelings about it but I removed the cowbird egg. I want the phoebes to make it and I don't want anymore cowbirds but I feel guilty about ending the life of the baby cowbird. I don't know how far along the egg was, but hopefully, not too far.

The feral hogs struck again 2 nights ago. They are destructive animals. They usually pass through just once a year but they've come through twice in the past 2 months. They dig up the land looking for grubs and such. They tore up a big chunk of the back pasture last time.

I've gotta change a diaper. Bye.