Had a bad day, but not my birds.

[Dartman]

I decided to mow the front yard today, Then broke out the weed Wacker later to clean up everything starting with the backyard. I got to the front yard and had to fix the weed Wacker string so I decided to double check the plants beside the carport and the grassy patch. I looked down and found a tiny nest I looked more and found 4 tiny baby birds scattered around close to the nest

 

[flyzipper]

With predators like a lawn mower, their hiding of the nest from a bird-lover like you was counterproductive.
I've accidentally killed frogs in the same manner, so I suspect I know how you're feeling.
Don't beat yourself up about it. I imagine you would have established a wide perimeter and heavily fortified their defences had you known it was there.

 

[Dartman]

Thanks, I accidentally hit the post button before I was done writing and it timed out while I was adding the rest.
They weren't damaged at all, just looked like they crawled away from the nest and mom didn't feed them or they overheated. I tried revive to them but they were all gone. There eyes weren't really open yet and I bet if I'd discovered them a hour earlier I could have topped them up with baby parrot food and put them back in the nest for mom to find.
I was telling my sister what happened and mom came down looking for her babies. I told her I'm sorry but your babies are gone. They were hooded junkos and I hope they'll lay more eggs being early and we can watch over them.

 

[flyzipper]

I hope they'll lay more eggs being early and we can watch over them.

I hope so too.

 

[Dartman]

I just studied up and they can lay up to 3 clutches a season so good possiblity they'll lay more eggs soon. They are ground nester so loose a lot of clutches to rodents etc.
They usually have 3 to 6 eggs per batch so she was right on target. I'll keep an eye on the nest and be more careful around the yard as the male loves the mirrors on all our cars so they'll probably stick around.

 

[Shezbug]

Oh boy, I’m so sorry.
It really is tough when this sort of accident happens- the same sort of thing has happened to me with blue tongue lizards, frogs and mice.
The mice I didn’t feel bad about as it was during a plague but the lizards and frogs I really felt awful about.

 

[Dartman]

I even try not to hurt insects and spiders. It just doesn't seem fair to destroy or hurt a tiny creature/bug just doing what they do. My coworkers always laugh about it when I try not to hurt a spider or something on a chimney.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

What a sad thing to see, but it’s good to know that they might lay more eggs. I love that you have such a kind heart and look out for all creatures.

 

[Dartman]

We raised a female house finch has a tiny baby from a crow on on our roof. We stuffed her full of baby parrot formula every few hours during the day and she did great and got a year and a half she wouldn't have.

 

[Dartman]

The lawn is dieing back but I decided to mow the weeds so I walked all the good nesting sites and didn't see any and mom and dad weren't bothering me so figured I was safe. Went slowly and tried to watch for them or any signs and nothing.
I was figuring I'd check the PT Cruiser mom recently gave us as she's officially too old to drive now and my air conditioning recharge cans are in the shed. I was wandering back and forth through the gate. I noticed the male twittering by the corner of the fence inside the driveway and he had little pieces of grass in his beak. Mom was around too and they were both complaining and staying very close to me in that corner. There are some old bird feeders there and the deck lid for my Neon I used to have so its grown up, and protected by all the stuff hidden in that corner behind the fence.
I kept trying to stay just far away for one of them to go to the nest build site. Dad finally jumped in the spot where the flower pots and feeders make a sheltered spot like a tunnel. There is good evidence of a nest there and nothing including my mower can get to it, they learned and have started over

 

[Dartman]

Here's some pics I just took

 

[finchly]

Oh how fun! I can just see you out there crawling the whole yard looking for nests.
So, the scattered nest. Probably not much you could do, the babies were under 6 days old (eyes not open). Even an hour or two delay in feeding can cause them to die.
They’re always secretive when building a nest, you’ll have to turn your back deliberately and use peripheral vision to see where they go .
I’ve never seen a junco, so thanks for sharing.

 

[Dartman]

The little guys get really close to us, It's like they know we won't hurt them on purpose and even when they are trying to get me to go away they just fly and land really close and watch us. They have a beautiful song too besides the twittering they do when we are close. Dad likes to ride on the wind vane to my weather station and sings as it swings around like he's not even there.
Glad they stuck around, except for our car mirrors that they love to sit on and sing and argue with the bird they see with predictable results.