Tweeters:

The soggy weather has brought few new birds lately up at Tiny's Land in n.
Lake Stevens, although we did have an Olive-sided Flycatcher Saturday, only
an occasional visitor here. I noted an above-average count of juncos, all
birds on territories, May 13 at Graysmarsh; seems there are more around our
place and in nearby areas also lately. So it makes sense we've had a
nesting pair in the yard this spring.

The junco pair nested in an ornamental dwarf (3' tall) spruce right next to
the house. Four eggs hatched, but sadly, one by one, the nestlings ended up
on the ground dead at the base of the tree. I've found many dead nestlings
over the years, but not having a lot of background in this area of
ornithology, does anyone out there in Tweeterland have a hypothesis on what
might induce nestlings to simply leave the nest prematurely? Overeagerness
for food? Too many parasites in the nest? Too much competition? Bad genes
in the intellect department? Seems the birds simply committed suicide.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com