I have mentioned this abandoned RV camp once before in a discussion on Mountain Bluebirds. I have noticed a number of different birds in this particular area over
the past several years thus it has become a stop on my birding route along the Green River. This year a pair of Say’s Phoebes were nesting in the concrete block building. They built a thick, warm-looking nest on top of a wall-hung
box with an open lid which provided a sheltered nest site. The parents were feeding young at this time and would enter the nest from both sides making it impossible to photograph their entry. They would often stop, prior or after delivery of their insect dinners, on the edge of the window sill allowing several photos. While photographing this pair feeding their young, I seemed to bring out the curiosity of a few other birds nesting in the area. A Sage Thrasher came in and sat on the top of the building’s air vent to take a long look at me.
A family of bluebirds had just fledged from their RV hook-up box and enjoyed hanging out on the roof or in the rafters making their “mewing” calls to each other as they learned to catch insects. Several pieces of furniture were left to disintegrate outside of the building. The batting on the inside of the chair was providing an Eastern Kingbird with a soft lining of nest material. She would stop by to fill her beak and then take off for the river bottom;
her distinctive black and white feathering set off by the faded orange armchair.
A Loggerhead Shrike arrived to inspect the inside of the building eventually finding a snack for it’s little ones. (I was hoping the young Phoebes were too big by this time and were not being eyed by this “raptor of the passerines”.) Vesper Sparrows, Horned Lark’s, a Western Kingbird all stopped in along with a lone Northern Mockingbird. My “first of the year” Common Nighthawk flew over letting me know he had arrived with it’s “peent” calls from the sky above me. All in all, a very birdy spot this beautiful morning. My thoughts were: it is nice to know, we can abandon an area and leave quite a mess behind but it may someday go back to the birds.