Friday, April 30, 2010

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.

5 comments:

RuthieJ said...

Oh Heather, that Carolina Wren nest is to amazing. Thanks for sharing your birdies with us.

FAB said...

Lovely nesting update Heather. Thanks to the Wren no yard sweeping for a while then! Lol. FAB

Heather said...

Ruthie - It's my pleasure to share our little bird families with you all! And yes, that wren nest is quite a piece of work. I've never seen one that's as strewn out as that one.

Frank - Yup, the wrens have taken that chore off our list for a while - ha ha!

Ginnymo said...

Your videos are awesome Heather!! You are so lucky to be able to see them like that!! That nest on the broom is funny. Guess you won't be using that for a while..Ha!

Heather said...

Ginny - Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed them. I got quite a kick out of it when Dave first pointed that Wren nest out to me - I guess they don't want us to clean!