Videos: Phoebe time-lapse and fishing heron

It's time for some new videos! The first is a time-lapse video that Dave (awesomely!) stitched together that encompasses the entire first nest attempt (and success!) of our resident Eastern Phoebe pair, from the first days that the Phoebes claimed and fixed up the nest up to the fledging of the 5 chicks.  It's 7 weeks of activity compressed into 5 minutes of footage.  Dave sums it up as follows:

Videos were taken from 3/19/2010 to 5/8/2010. Videos were triggered by a motion sensor so the time is not linear. Periods with more activity such as when the young birds were being fed are disproportionately longer than those with less activity. Fifty two hours of video were compressed (by removing frames) to this five minute video. Nest repairs began on March 19th. Eggs were laid around April 5th. Eggs hatched around April 19th and the last bird fledged on May 8th.

Here are some highlights to look for:
0:00-0:50 - repair and refurbish pre-existing nest
0:50-2:00 - egg laying and incubation
2:00 - eggs have hatched, feeding begins!
2:25 - look for heads to start popping up
2:50 - the young ones are now easily seen
3:10 - getting bigger...
3:49 - more activity and movement from babies
4:38 - 2 birds leave the nest
4:49 - #3 leaves the nest
4:53 - #3 comes back
4:55 - #3 leaves again
4:56- end: #4 and #5 argue about who's leaving next
5:04  - empty!

It's amazing to watch the progression of the nest being shored up, and the way the babies grow.  Enough of my babbling, though.  I know you guys want to actually see the video!

The 2nd video is one I captured just the other evening when we were out for a leisurely paddle on Fox Lake. The lake was thick with Great Blue Herons - I've never seen so many there at one time. They weren't too crazy about sharing the shoreline with each other, even though there was plenty of room to accommodate them all. There was one spot that seemed to offer up some great fishing, a spot well worth defending, as you will see in this video. Enjoy!

Birds in the Hocking Hills

While I was taking photos during the Shoot the Hills photo competition this past weekend, I made sure that my ears were "on" so I could listen for birds. I was not disappointed.

I was absolutely delighted to hear my first Wood Thrush of the season (haven't heard any in our own woods yet), and I also heard my very first Hermit Thrush - EVER! Unfortunately I didn't see either of them, but their haunting, beautiful songs were rewarding enough. The Hermit Thrush should be preparing to head farther north to its breeding territory, whereas the Wood Thrush is just migrating into its breeding range from down south, so I imagine the window of time of being able to hear both of these thrushes on the same day is probably pretty small. How fortunate I was!

I also heard plenty of Phoebes, a Chipping Sparrow kept me in constant company at my campsite, and I was lucky to hear (but not see) the Black-Throated Green Warbler. One of the easier warblers to identify by ear, it has an easily recognizable song of "zoo-ZEE, zoo-zoo-ZEE!" I heard them all over the place, and was happy to be sharing space with them as they make their migratory way through to points farther north. Apparently there were also Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in the area, because several folks captured photos of them, but I didn't see any personally. (The Photographer's Choice winner was an wonderful photo of a Gnatcatcher perched on a blooming Redbud tree.)

One place in the area to stop for some good water bird photography is Lake Logan. The north end of the lake is quite the haven for Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Mute Swans and Canada Geese. I'm sure other birds like it there, too, but these were the most obvious species. I also heard lots of Red-winged Black Birds around, too, but did not spot any of them.

Here's a Great Egret coming in for an awkward-looking landing (please excuse the photo quality - shooting right into the sun here):

Here is a Mute Swan in the middle of flapping his (or her?) wings:

There was also a female Mute Swan on her nest:

... and in mid-preen:

Finally, I got a series of photos of a Great Blue Heron catching his dinner:

Afterward he had to shake it out and got his feathers all floofy:

Only to quickly return to his calm, cool and collected self:

Hocking Hills State Park naturalist Pat Quackenbush informed us that Double-Crested Cormorants and Red-throated Loons have also been spotted at the lake, passing through on migration.

Coming up... wildflowers of the Hocking Hills!

Lake Hope Heron update

I first mentioned the Great Blue Heron colony at Lake Hope a little over a month ago when the Great Backyard Bird Count was in full swing. At that time we located lots of nests far off in the sycamore trees, but no actual birds. Well, we've been back several times since then and have seen a handful of herons.

Unfortunately my meager 80-200mm zoom lens cannot even begin to approach acceptable pictures of these birds and nests that are so far off in the distance. Even when using a tripod, it's hard to get the camera to focus on the birds instead of one of the many branches that is between the camera and the birds. Instead, I just have to modify the photo to give you the general idea of "here are the nests, and, oh yeah, that's a heron."

Mr. (or Mrs.) skinny legs hangs out on the nest.

Our most recent visit to the colony/rookery/heronry was this past Sunday, right in the middle of the day (2:00, maybe), and I was actually surprised to find any herons around. I think there were 5 or 6 there, one of which was surely sitting on eggs because I could only see a head sticking out of the nest. There was also a grouping of them just kind of "standing around" at the top of a tree, but not really on a nest. It almost felt as if they were standing guard, but of what?

I messed with this picture quite a bit to try to show some of the coloring of the bird's underside.

Subsequent manipulation led to this interesting rendition.

Not sure how many more times we'll make it out there before the trees leaf out, but if we go again and see some activity, I'll let you know!

PHOEBE NEST UPDATE: Things at the nest have been pretty quiet lately. She seems to stop in only a few times a day, and very briefly at that. It would seem that nest construction is complete, but again, we still have no idea if she's started laying or not.