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A pair of wrens nesting in a ceramic birdhouse hanging on my back porch.
(Slow lens speed and fast birds precluded a sharper picture.)
Update: Inexplicably, almost immediately after their nest was finished, they were gone.
Update 2: Three months later, they returned and raised some little ones.
The remarkable bill of the Black Skimmer sets it apart from all other American birds. The large red and black bill is knife-thin and the lower mandible is longer than the upper. The bird drags the lower bill through the water as it flies along, hoping to catch small fish.
Adult Description
•Medium-sized to large waterbird.
•Long red and black bill; lower half longest.
•Black back and cap.
•Underparts white.
•Very short red legs.
•Long, pointd wings.
Immature Description
Similar to adult, but with mottled black-and-white back and head.
Measurements
Both Sexes
Length15.7–19.7 in
40–50 cmWeight7.5–15.8 oz
212–447 g
Other Names
•Bec à ciseaux (Louisiana), Bec-en-ciseaux noir (French)
•Rayador, Arador, Pico de Tijera (Spanish)
Cool Facts
•The Black Skimmer is the only American representative of the skimmer family. The other two, rather similar, species are the African Skimmer and the Indian Skimmer. All use the same unusual feeding method.
•Although the Black Skimmer is active throughout the day, it is largely crepuscular (active in the dawn and dusk) and even nocturnal. Its use of touch to catch fish lets it be successful in low light or darkness.
•At hatching, the two mandibles of a young Black Skimmer are equal in length, but by fledging at four weeks, the lower mandible is already nearly 1 cm longer than the upper.
•Possibly the best description of the Black Skimmer's bounding, head-down foraging style came from R. C. Murphy in 1936. He said they look like “unworldly… aerial beagles hot on the scent of aerial rabbits.”
Habitat
Look for Black Skimmers on open sandy beaches, on gravel or shell bars with sparse vegetation, or on mats of sea wrack (tide-stranded debris) in saltmarsh. Skimmers are occasionally seen at inland lakes such as the Salton Sea of California. Much of this species' original beach habitat has been developed as houses and attractions for beachgoers. Particularly in the southeastern U.S., artificial islands made from dredge spoils are an important nesting habitat for this and other species.
Food
Feeds on small fish up to about 5 inches in length, including herring, killifish, mullet, and pipefish. Also may consume small crustaceans. Black Skimmers may travel 5 miles from their breeding colony in search of food.
Nest Description
Mates take turns scraping, using an exaggerated posture (with the neck, head, bill, and tail raised) kicking sand behind them with alternating foot strokes. They then rotate in their scrape to create a saucer-shaped depression, similar to resting scrapes used throughout the year. The depression takes only a few minutes to create, but the process of nesting may involve several scrapes. Males do more scraping and make larger scrapes than females. The average scrape is 10 inches in diameter and 1 inch deep.
Nest Placement
Black Skimmers are colonial seabirds that nest in groups, often with other species such as Laughing Gulls and Common, Least, or Gull-billed Terns. Look for colonies on beaches, gravel or shell bars, dredge deposition islands, saltmarshes, and rooftops.
Behavior
The Black Skimmer has one of the most unusual foraging styles of any North American bird. A feeding skimmer flies low over the water with its bill open and its lower mandible slicing the surface. When the mandible touches a fish, the upper bill (maxilla) snaps down instantly to catch it. Skimmers are highly social birds, nesting in colonies and forming large flocks outside the breeding season. Large, successful colonies usually occupy the same site from year to year, while small or failed colonies usually relocate.
From a distance the cliffs of Boreray can look snow-capped but its actually just guano from the thousands of nesting birds.
Greylag geese (Anser anser) pair at the pond; one nesting, the other looking towards the camera while preening.
RSPB The Lodge, Sandy, 4th April 2023.
In order to assist with the successful nesting of Osprey, platforms have been built on top of utility poles complete with wire screening to help keep the nest secure. This pair have rebuilt on this same pole now for the past three years. The photo below shows the female in the nest. Note she has added a bit of teasel to the interior to help spruce things up a bit!
Partner, if you could check out the front view and answer a few questions for me, I would really appreciate it. :)
i found this swan nesting the other day and its partner is with it as well I'm going to keep a eye on them and hopefully they will give me some cracking photos.
Nesting by Sisters Hope
photo: I diana lindhardt
Photographs are free to use with the credits as formulated above displayed visibly.
Leaps of preparations for Sisters Academy - The Takeover in Copenhagen
Calls for residencies will open soon.
"Nesting"
encaustic and mixed media
8x8 inches
Painting created for my encaustic and mixed media article in the Nov/Dec issue of Somerset Studio
This was on Cunningham Island in the middle of the lake at Land Between the Lakes, KY. I took this handheld from a kayak. There were 50-75 nesting birds on the island along with several Black Crowned Night Herons, hundreds of Cormorants, and a few other assorted waterfoul.
I tried to get another sharper shot of the mourning dove's eye, but it looks as if it's going to be hit or miss with the auto-focusing. Perhaps another attempt in the morning (when the light is more direct) will give me a clearer, sharper image. (Uncropped.)
The interior is a home dec weight fabric with fusible medium weight interfacing applied. I used size 10 cotton thread for the handstitching. The home dec inside material has been in my stash forever.
Pattern Review sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/87922
Blogged here dakotasews.blogspot.com/2013/07/nesting-fabric-bowls-owl-....
This was at the Salton Sea, CA.
These are REAL birds on REAL nests. They flew away after I took a couple photos but I swear they were really there!
stumbled across this goose nesting by the waters edge as I was trying to get a better angle of the Grey Herons lined up on the old boardwalk fishing, as the old boathouse was somewhat in the way for getting a photo....A visit a few days later and I noticed the hatched eggs left on the nest, and no geese / goslings...so they must have moved off the nest
On the Ring Road, in the Icelandic North, not far from Blönduós. I watched this mother swan and her hyperactive offspring for about 30 minutes. The baby kept poking around its mother, often seeming to preen her feathers, while its siblings remained hidden under their mother's belly (I know there was at least one other as it had momentarily stuck its head out). The mother (and Daddy who was standing just to the left), seemed a bit wary of me as they kept looking my direction (or so it seemed to me), but I kept inside the car with only my camera lens sticking out the window. I cannot know what they might have done had I stepped out and approached them a few feet. But I wasn't so tempted--not only because I didn't want to disturb them more than I already had, but it was raining.
To my eyes, at least, this "Ugly Duckling" wasn't the least bit ugly.
Found this exquisite wasp trying to build a nest on my air-conditioner. I had just bought my 50mm lens so I couldn't destroy it before taking a shot. I apologize for having it right at the middle of the frame but it was quite a difficult shot to take leaning off my window.
While birding at Barr Lake State Park on day one of our Big Birding Weekend, my dad and I heard the pounding of a woodpecker but couldn't track down exactly where it was coming from. I placed my hand on the trunk of this tree to brace myself as I looked peered around and felt the tree vibrate in sync with the sound of pounding. After that clue, I found the nest hole and seconds later this cute female Downy stuck her head out for this amazing photo.
Nesting by Sisters Hope
photo: I diana lindhardt
Photographs are free to use with the credits as formulated above displayed visibly.
Leaps of preparations for Sisters Academy - The Takeover in Copenhagen
Calls for residencies will open soon.
I dedicate this image to my Flickr friend, Kim. She inspired me to go to the 9th Street Rookery in Santa Rosa to see the nesting birds there. I only wish that I had a better lens to get a tighter shot. . I will put that on my wish list!
The female of the two oystercatchers nesting on the roof of the Royal Golf Hotel. Oystercatchers usually nest on the ground but this resourceful pair have used a flat roof at the hotel for the last 4 years. This has the advantage of making the nest safe from ground living predators but it is still at risk from all the gulls and crows that live nearby. The nest is made by scraping loose gravel into a volcano shaped mound.
There are more photographs of these birds and their family to follow!
A note to egg collectors - this was taken on April 13th and the eggs have since hatched, I have waited to post the photograph so as not to put the birds at risk.
A House Finch nest in a juniper next to our entry door in Norman, OK. Just found it and another today. Nest 1 has two eggs inside. There is some cotton woven in that I recognize as nesting material our neighbor Mitzi placed near her feeders. We would have 20 or so House Finches on the feeders through the winter, but we are now down to two pairs and lucky that both have built nests in our yard. Both are in juniper trees and both in places that I can't get the legs of my ladder level. I have to climb up, extend my arm and shoot downward using my little Nikon Coolpix to shoot blindly until a get a usuable shot of the nest contents. One nest has two eggs and the other is not quite completed and has none.
set of 3 nesting fabric gift boxes in a lovely floral print with a striped inner box. boxes are 3", 2" and 1.2" cubes.
Shags nesting on the cliffs at Butt of Lewis, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Easy to think of these birds as being a plain black, but there is a lot of texture and detail in their glossy, green-black feathers.
Can't beat that for a background! The nest must be inside the azalea, as the bird surveyed the area to make sure it was unobserved by predators before popping in with the twig. Note the brood patch on the breast -- I've rarely seen such a marked one.
It says here in the book that the male usually builds the stick nest and that only the female incubates. Tell that to the bird! It must be a female with a brood patch like that, but there it is with a twig.