Violet-Green Swallow Stare Down

This Violet-Green Swallow baby was giving me the great Stare Down on Day 20, just too cute for words! Only 5 more days in the nest.

Violet-Green Swallow Feeding Time

Daddy Violet-Green Swallow making a quick pit stop to deliver bugs to one of the babies.

Violet-Green Swallow – 11 day old babies

This was the last time I opened the nest box, the babies were so active on day 11 I knew I wouldn’t be able to see inside the nest box again.

Violet-Green Swallow Feather Nest

My Violet-Green Swallow Family had a gorgeous nest full of beautiful feathers. This picture was taken when the hatchlings were about 3 days old.

Double Duty

Spending our last anniversary on the Central Coast of California was a treat for all the senses. While in Morro Bay, my husband mentioned that he’d read about a heron or egret rookery in the area. We did a lot of driving around before we found what we think was the rookery. We’d been in another town the day before that had an egret rookery that locals told us had been ‘taken over’ by the cormorants. And, that the cormorant’s excrement was killing the trees. This is what we’d noticed in this spot, too. There were dozens of cormorants sitting on or near nests; others coming and going…but, while shooting the two larger cormorants in this photo suddenly, 2 small heads popped up. Dinnertime!

In Mama’s View

Visiting my brother in Florida, he noticed my camera and thought to take me to visit Wakulla Springs to photograph the animals. I was new to photography, but instantly fell in love with this magical place. Best yet, it was breeding season and many of these beautiful birds were sitting on eggs or feeding their ‘new additions.’ As our boat came around a bend, I spotted this beautiful Great Egret with her 3 (visible) babies.

Ducky Day-Care!

Hatching Interuptus

At Bacardi Bottling Corporation, we have 22 acres of native warm season grass and wildflowers, a perfect haven for bluebird nesting boxes. We have eight boxes that we monitor through the breeding season and this nest box, the Mango Mansion, is very popular with the resident Eastern Bluebirds! Every week we check to see what activity is happening and this particular week, we saw three hatchlings and two eggs in the box. The little limb at the bottom of the picture speaks of the vulnerability of the species at this stage of life. The vision of environmental corporate responsibility at an industrial site is reality at Bacardi Bottling Corporation!

I’m Always Hungry Mom

Nest built on a fallen tree in a channel between two lakes. Took photo as we were passing by in boat.