Pileated Woodpecker Family Takes Form

This Spring I was eager for breeding season to start. I began daily walks through the park less than a mile from my house. On April 2 I spotted a Pileated Woodpecker visiting a tree cavity and moments later the female emerged and the birds traded places on the nest. I discovered the birds did this routine about the same time each day. Their nest was near the top of a snag about 10 feet off a busy trail of dog-walkers and runners and older adults taking their daily stroll. Many people, seeing me with a fancy camera (and standing just a few feet from the nest), would ask if I had seen the “big bird” they had recently seen on the trail. I would answer, yes I think they have a nest in this park. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone to look up! I watched with anticipation over the next weeks as the adults started bringing food and carrying fecal sacs out of the nest. On April 29 I caught a glimpse of the first nestling at the hole. A few days later three heads emerged! I was surprised when I heard the first one calling from the nest, sounding just like the adults. A week later the first bird had fledged, and the next day the second. I found the family foraging together within earshot of the nest, where the last nestling took two days longer to fledge. I was there at that moment, heard the bird calling, saw the adult fly over to an adjacent tree, and seconds later the little one was gone. The nest was empty. Over the last five weeks I had developed an enormous sense of attachment to this new family, and I couldn’t have been happier to witness their success.

Watching a Common Raven fledge

In mid-April, I learned from eBird about the Common Raven nest with two nestlings next to the bike path in a neighborhood park. The nest was on a pillar under a major thoroughfare. A busy bike path runs through the highway viaduct. I decided to monitor the nest for Nestwatch. One bird was more developed than the second bird, and I was concerned because I never saw the adults near the nest when only the second nestling remained. One day in early May I arrived to discover the second bird had just fledged from the nest and was in the viaduct hopping around on the rocks. Occasionally it would fly a few feet. It explored some canvass and other stuff lying around. The adults watched attentively from a steel girder under the highway. They were so attentive, I needn’t have worried. I watched for an hour until the fledgling flew out of the viaduct. I was able to find the fledgling nearby and get a beautiful portrait of the bird. This became one of my most treasured birding experiences.

Ready to Fledge

The Big Fledge Day!

I watched in awe as all five of the Eastern Bluebird babies fledged! The box was at the end of my yard and I had my camera focused on it all the time. I was able to get many photos of the progress of the family. I now find myself glancing out the window — and they are no longer there. I feel good that there are five young bluebirds in my neighborhood and hope they will return to the box at my house another year!

Fledging Tree Swallow