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A female prothonotary warbler sits on her young inside her nesting cavity. Both the male and female were extremely tolerant of my presence.
I was heading down the home stretch at Ridgefield NWR when I saw this beauty drop out of the sky and grab his prey.......oops! I mean his nesting materials.
Snowy Egret (nest) - 2 nest-bound juveniles
Saint Augustine, Florida - Mid Summer 2024
In the Nest - Northern Florida U.S.A. - 7/4/24
-------Independence Day 2024 ----------Born in the U.S.A.!
In the Wild - Nesting - Rookery - Treetop - July 4th, 2024
Southern Snow - Beauty of Snow - Snowy Egret chicks
*[left-click for a closer-look - deep into a dense tree thicket]
*[strong blaring intense morning summer sunlight & shadows]
Snowy egrets breed in mixed colonies, which may include great egrets, night herons, tricolored herons, little blue herons, cattle egrets, glossy ibises and roseate spoonbills. The male establishes
a territory and starts building the nest in a tree, vines or very thick undergrowth. He then attracts a mate with an elaborate courtship display which includes dipping up and down, bill raising, aerial displays, diving, tumbling and calling. The immediate vicinity of
the nest is defended from other birds and the female finishes the construction of the nest with materials brought by the male. It is constructed from twigs, rushes, sedges, grasses, Spanish moss
and similar materials and may be 15 inches across. Up to six pale bluish-green eggs are laid which hatch after about 24 days. The young are altricial and covered with white down when first hatched.
They leave the nest after about 22 days. - Lots of fun to observe.
Female Marsh Harrier gathering nest material, this is a tough capture, not close enough, and heat haze , but they are my excuses.
I do believe that bird has those potatoes confused with eggs. Haha, taken at our smallish family reunion, June 13th, 2009
........And then........THIS happened.....
Now for the rest of the story. I was out recently photographing all kinds of birds. Spring is such a wonderful time for migrating and nesting birds. The area I was in has miles of open fields and is a great habitat for Northern Harriers. It's fun to drive around on the roads and look for them. I spotted a male harrier, aka the Gray ghost, and was very excited to have him close enough and in really good light. I lifted my camera to my eye and began to shoot. While I was shooting, I could see that another bird had passed through my viewfinder, but it was so fast that I had no idea what I might be seeing or even if I had it in focus. Well, it turned out to be a female harrier coming in hot and fast to steal the prey from the talon of the male harrier. This all happened so fast that I never actually saw any of it. I did notice as I was shooting that there was in fact a female harrier flying around and I switched my focus to her. She put on a lovely show for me. It wasn't until I was reviewing my images that I saw what actually happened. Not only did I see what had occurred, but I captured all of it. I still cannot believe the incredible luck. You'll notice that the female has her mouth open and yes, I did hear screaming. Please view the 6 photo series.
This guy was jumping around all over the place but decided to sit down at a good spot after some time. This was in January and they were apparently already gathering nesting material if I remember correctly.
More on the Flightless(Galapagos) Cormorant. They build a nest of seaweed just above the high tide level. Both parents share the incubation and feeding chores. The male and female are identical in color and markings except the male is larger. (The juveniles are similar but more of a sleek blackish color and a dark eye) They are strong swimmers chasing fish eel and octopus. They feed close to the bottom and not more than a 100 meters from the shore. As well as not having good wings, their breast bone where the flying muscle are attached is not shaped the same as the cormorants here. The body feathers are thicker, denser and almost like hair.