It’s a Big World Out There

A young Great Crested Flycatcher gets a first look at the big world outside the nesting box.

American Kestrel Wired In

This newly fledged American Kestrel managed to make it to a barbed wire fence where he was able to rest from his first flight endeavor. I am sure this won’t be the last wire that he sits on.

Cedar Waxwing Food Lesson

When the serviceberries get ripe Cedar Waxwing, along with a host of other birds, come to dine. I have noted adult Cedar Waxwings feeding their young serviceberries on a number of occasions. I conjecture that they may be teaching these newly fledged birds what berries are edible, as I don’t witness this behavior later in the summer.

Wrens in their Nest

Our tool shed is a favorite location for the wrens to nest, and these four babies were easy to photograph, as long as I kept still when the parents entered with food. As I was getting closer to the nest, the baby birds thought I was bringing food, and I captured all four mouths open at once! Mama Wren promptly scolded me as she slipped in with their meal.

Mama Goose and her Goslings

While visiting my sister in Minnesota, I captured this image of a Mama Goose leading her 12 goslings to the nearby lake. They followed her in a lovely line across the neighborhood road, into the grass, and down into the water.

Solo Wren Fledgling Finally Leaving Nest

This little wren fledgling was the only one of the clutch of eggs to hatch. The nest was inside our tool shed, up high on the wall, and when the baby left the nest it stayed in the shed for a day before making his way outside. The parent wrens came to feed it and tried to coax it outside the shed, but this little one took its time.

Bluebird Daddy Feeding Babies

Bluebirds raise 3-4 broods each year in the house at the corner of our garden, and I was fortunate enough to catch this moment during feeding time.

watch out squirrell

the brown thrasher has a nest in the bush and every time the squirrel comes close to it the thrasher raises his wings and chases him off.

Handsome Brandt’s Cormorant and his nest

The male Brandt’s Cormorant has chosen his nest site and his flashing his blue throat to impress the ladies and ward off rivals

Hungry Anna’s Hummingbird Fledgling

This still slightly fuzzy, and very noisy, fledgling Anna’s Hummingbird is begging mom for more food.

Baby Hooded Oriole

This photo was taken the day before this young hooded oriole fledged from its nest in one of our California Fan Palms. I enjoyed watching it grow from a needy, fuzzy-headed, hatchling to a beautiful, yellow, nestling.

Daddy Oriole taking his turn feeding the hatchlings

This male hooded oriole is preparing to feed his hatchlings a delicious green caterpilllar in one of our California fan palms. I think he caught me, what do you think?

feeding little one

brown thrasher feeding little one

Brown Fish Owl

Chick of Paddy-field Pipit

Eggs of Little Ringed Plover

Nest of Black-crown Night Heron

Tree Swallow chick hatching

A strong chick began hatching from one Tree Swallow egg during NestWatch check of bird box.

Brown-headed Cowbird in Phoebe Nest

baby male cardinal

a baby male Cardinal leaves the nest

A Perfect Circle

While checking bluebird nest boxes, we found these six mountain bluebird nestlings arranged in a perfect circle. Our local Audubon chapter has maintained and monitored this bluebird trail of 100 boxes for over 40 years.

bluebird with food for chicks

male bluebird bringing a slug to feed to chicks

Orchard Orioles

I spotted the young Orchard Oriole sitting quietly on a branch, when Dad suddenly appeared with breakfast! Over the next ten minutes, the routine was repeated several times.

Teamwork

Red-Shoulder hawk nest at dinner time.

I first discovered this nest on April 13. On tbe 24th of April I was very fortunate to have my camera ready when one of the parents arrived with the green snake to feed mate and young. What isn’t visible are the chicks. I saw the first one on April 30. There were three babies.
The pair raised all three. The last young left the nest on the 5th of June.

Summer Loving

I was laying in the sand photographing least tern chicks when this pair started their dance. The male will hold the fish and walk around flicking it showing that he has his gift, the female will follow laying down and continue doing so until he mounts her and gives her the fish..

Taking it all in.

Juvenile great egret at Kiwanis Lake, York, PA

Fledging makes me hungry!

Feeding time on fledging day.

Grumpy Baby Blue

Follow the leader

Ready for Takeoff

A young Burrowing Owl stretches its wings as dusk approaches.

Demanding

This Wood Thrush nest, built with plenty of trash, was down low in a young birch right in my back yard. I watched this family from nest-building to successful fledging.

Homecoming

Excited young Great Blue Herons perk up as an adult comes back in to feed them.

Roseate Feeding

Look closely and you can see the bill of the young in the adult’s throat!

Feeding the Chicks

Feeding time

Baby red-tailed hawk

I discovered a red-tailed hawk’s nest a few weeks before I took this photo. After visiting the nest several times I started to notice a little fuzzy creature in the nest. As the weeks progressed, I tried to photograph the chick as often as I could to document its development. The hawk’s feathers have come in and it has grown quite a bit. I’m amazed at how much it has changed in just a few months.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Time to bring in the soft part of the nest. Such a good momma.

Marsh Wren Building a Nest

I was watching Rudy Ducks on one side when my wife saw this little guy hard a work.

Playing peek-a-boo

I saw some movement in this hole in a tree so I took a closer look, I didn’t hang around too long I didn’t want anyone to miss a meal.

Am I Pretty

A Great Egret showing off his manhood feathers to attract a female

Western Grebe Family Moment

I watched this family for several minutes Mom has three chicks on her back and Dad repeatedly dived in for a fish and brought it “home”.

Baby Drongo

The Drongo fledglings that lived in our backyard were, as you can see, very curious. I had been trying to capture this shot for a long time, and while I was out one day he very nicely turn his head to me just as I snapped this picture.

Mallard Duckling

Real Camo

Finding a bird’s nest is always a neat experience, even if it’s just a Killdeer’s. When I was trying to photograph this nest, I wanted a unique angle that illustrated the way that the eggs were able to blend in with their surroundings. Using a truck as a blind, I was able to come up on the Killdeer’s nest without disturbing them and get this photo.

Frazzled

A Tricolored Heron Making a Nest

Feeding time

Two Baby Egrets Nagging Their Mother for a meal

Great White Egret with eggs

Great white Egret arranging her eggs

Papa Red-Bellied Woodpecker feeding his chick!

Keeping Dry!

Canada Goose Mom protecting chicks from rain.

Hummer Summer Supper

I am lucky enough to live with several very large, very old (over 100 years) Tamarack trees in my yard. Last summer was the first summer I observed Ruby-throated Hummingbirds nesting in these trees and I was immediately hooked into watching them construct their nests, incubate their eggs, feed the young, and ultimately, see the young fledge. This fascinating experience is what led me to participate in Nest Watch this summer and, so far, I have located 5 Ruby-throated Hummingbird nests and am observing and recording data on each of them. The nest in this photo was the second one I found this summer, and the first one to fledge. Although there were two eggs and two nestlings earlier, by fledging time, only 1 young hummer had survived. This one successfully fledged the day after I took this photo.

Moments before fledging

Fledging

June 2016

Back Porch Wrens

Wren babies

Front Porch Family

Pictures were taken out the front door hiding behind wreath on the door.

Front Porch Family

Pictures were taken out the front door hiding behind wreath on the door.

Front Porch Family

Pictures were taken out the front door hiding behind wreath on the door.

Front Porch Family

Pictures were taken out the front door hiding behind wreath on the door.

Breakfast with Mom and Dad

I was lucky enough to be able to lay and watch this Least Tern family as the sun was coming up. These chicks were less than 24 hours old because you could still see the “egg tooth” . (Taken with 600mm lens.)

Feeding time at the Hummingbird Home

Osprey Feeding Time

Who’s first?

Eastern Kingbirds have nested in this particlar Hawthorne Tree overhanging our pond for years. It is always fun to watch the parents feeding their young.

Hungry Tree Swallow nestling.

Boy, you’re a hungry little fellow!

Eager Tree Swallow nestlings

Bluebird babies

Second set of bluebird babies of the summer

Mama’s boy

a female wood duck with her baby, who’s learning everything from mama

Pas de deux

a male common golden eye with a female

Home is where my family is

a female merganser with her babies

Preening barred owlet

While on a hike, I found a barred owl family. I captured this picture of an owlet in the midst of preening, curiously watching me the whole time.

Dragonfly dinner

This swallow is feeding its babies dragonflies for dinner The day after this picture was taken, the babies fledged.

Watchful mama coot

This mama coot just fed her baby a snail, then watched intently while the baby swallowed its treat.

Nest remodel

In watching this osprey nest, I’ve noticed a pattern. One adult brings in a fish, which the other adult then feeds to the baby and itself. The adult that did the feeding then flies to the river, brings in a stick, and does a little nest remodeling. This is the delivery of one such stick, with the baby looking on.

Burrowing Owlet

Burrowing Owl

Osprey refreshing the nest

Happily Branching

Arctic Tern dinner time

An Arctic Tern baby can’t swallow fish as fast as mother brings them

Hungry Babies

A hummingbird moved in to our deck, built a nest, and owned the deck for about five weeks.
We were pretty much not allowed to use the deck, but I was able to get some pictures that I could not have gotten anywhere else.

Great Blue Stand Off

These Great Blue Heron couldn’t quite see eye to eye on setting up house. Hopefully they got it all worked out.

Tree swallow baby gets ready for a dragonfly

Bobolink fledglings in the fog

Tufted Titmouse Looking for Nesting Material

Not often does a wild bird come and land on your body. This tufted titmouse was interested in my leg hair for nesting material.

Great Blue Heron Begin Nest Building

During a Space Coast Birding festival I had the opportunity to photograph at the Viera Wetlands where these Great Blue Heron were setting up the nest

Two Egret Cuties

Two newly hatched Egret nestlings with BIG HAIR

Cardinal Kiss

A male cardinal feeds his offspring along the fence next to my back yard feeders.

Dutiful Dad

Every year, the House Finches are the first birds to fledge in our yard. In the space of a day, the yard and trees are filled with the strident sounds of begging fledglings. Interestingly, I usually only see the males feeding the nestlings – I wonder if the female is still tending nestlings?

Renovatoins

While enjoying an early morning walk at Swartswood State Park, I noticed a chickadee flitting around a tree about 20 feet off the trail. I stood still for a while to watch and was rewarded by seeing a pair of black-capped chickadees working on a nest cavity in an old tree stump.

Kids will be kids

While the adult looked on, the two wood stork nestlings were biting each other and jostling around in the nest. It seemed playful.

Comparing Notes

I visited the wild bird rookery at St. Augustine in May when the Wood Storks, Great Egrets and Spoonbills all had nestlings. I am always surprised at how close together different species nest in rookeries. These two nests (wood storks above and great egrets below) were only maybe 24 inches apart. But the nestlings didn’t seem to mind, and the business of feeding hungry babies went off without a hitch.

new nests

we had a severe storm which knocked down 2 barn swallow nests under our deck with days old chicks.
my husband nailed up the plastic bins and returned as much nesting material as possible. we just randomly returned the chicks and the mothers came back about 2 hours later and the fledged normally!