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!

They'll fly any day now

Yes folks, as my headline implies, our baby Eastern Phoebes should leave the nest any day now. They hatched on April 19th, and today marks 16 days since they hatched. Eastern Phoebes typically fledge between 16 and 18 days after hatching. I say this every year, but I cannot get over how quickly they develop. They are very handsome and healthy-looking birds, and I hope that they all fare well once they do make that leap from the nest.

Here are some videos that were captured just today (May 5th).

In this one you can see just how big they are. You can't see them all in this video, but I promise there are 5 little birds crammed into this nest:

In case you didn't believe me, here is a good view of all 5 of them in the nest as they jockey for a fresh position:

Finally, I think this is a good example of how close they are to leaving the nest. Lots of wing flapping going on in this video, getting those little flight muscles warmed up and primed. There's also some wing extending and tail bobbing going on here:

We'll have the camera going bright and early for the next few days in hopes of catching them when they leave (they took off in the morning last year, right before we left for work). I'll keep you posted with the news!

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.

Did you know birds can play the guitar?

Dave alerted me to this very strange, intriguing, amazing video. Gives new meaning to the term "birds rock!"

Flying squirrel video

Finally, I was able to get a somewhat decent video of the flying squirrels pigging out at the bird feeder tonight! The lighting is not great, but you will certainly get the gist of how active they are. This is the first time I've seen more than 1 flying squirrel at a time in many weeks. I hope you enjoy this video of my little rodent friends getting their fill on this snowy January night.

Feederwatch, week 4 (including video)

The big news for this week's session of Feederwatching is that we got snow!! Accumulation was less than an inch, but it snowed for about 4 hours and most everything got nice and white. It was a chilly weekend overall, and the temps didn't even get above freezing on Saturday.

Given those conditions, I would have expected a lot more birds at the feeders, but things were pretty much the same as they have been during previous weeks. In past seasons when the snow would start to fly, the birds would usually "freak out," as I call it, and would just mob the feeders as if were going to be their last meal. Needless to say, they were much more calm this weekend than I expected them to be.

I was amazed to still be hearing Yellow-crowned Kinglets bubbling around in the trees in this cold weather. Unfortunately they don't come into the feeders, so I'm not able to count them.

I am still impatiently waiting to see Eastern Towhees and Blue Jays. I have not heard so much as a peep from either species anywhere in the neighborhood for months. I heard them around in late summer, but it's not like these are birds that migrate south for the winter. Where the heck did they go?! I guess I just need to stop being so impatient. After looking at data from last season, neither of these birds showed up regularly at the feeders until January.

The tally for my 4th set of observations (12/5/09-12/6/09):

Mourning Dove	16
Red-bellied Woodpecker	2
Downy Woodpecker	1
Hairy Woodpecker	2
Carolina/Black-capped Chickadee	4
Tufted Titmouse	4
White-breasted Nuthatch	2
Carolina Wren	1
White-throated Sparrow	1
Dark-eyed Junco	1
Northern Cardinal	8
American Goldfinch	9

And here's a video of several different birds visiting the peanut feeder (taken with my new Nikon Coolpix camera). Happy birding!

Rare parrot caught shagging UK photographer

For those of you who peruse Cute Overload on a regular basis, you may have already seen this, but this is some amazing (and amusing) rare bird footage that any bird and/or nature lover MUST see!


The bird in the video is a Kakapo, and you can learn more about him over at the BBC's Last Chance to See site.

Carry on with your day. That was completely normal, right? Right, I thought so.