Nesting news and videos

Before I head off to Shawnee State Forest for Flora-Quest, I wanted to leave you with some video footage of our Phoebe family. There are 5 healthy (presumably) nestlings, and they are getting bigger every day. Mama and papa Phoebe are super busy from sunup to sundown feeding and removing the waste of these little ones. Here's some video!

In this one, papa brings a bug to mama while she's on the nest, and she gives it to one of the nestlings. They were just a day or two old at this point, and she's sitting right on top of them so you can't see them:

Here's another example of papa helping out with the feeding duties, handing off to mama once again. This is a few days later, and you can see the gaping beaks of the nestlings now:

Finally, here's a clear view of all 5 nestlings during a feeding from one parent. I love how after the adult leaves all of the babies kind of fold back down into the nest synchronously:


In addition to the Phoebe nest, Dave also discovered a Carolina Wren nest under the house a few days ago.  I figured they were nesting somewhere close by, but I couldn't figure out where.

They really aren't picky about where they put their nests:


Can you make out the round opening of the nest over at the right? There are at least 4 little ones in this nest.

So many new flowers are popping open, it's incredible. The wild Geraniums are looking very handsome, and the Firepink is just starting to bloom, as well as Spiderwort. I found a small mass of Blue-eye Mary in the woods across the road last weekend. A life plant for me!


I can't wait to see how many new plants we'll encounter at Flora-Quest this weekend! Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds for us.