It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. I’ve managed to visit the Eastons and Westons twice each, the Middletons once and the heron rookery once.
The trailer is all packed for an early morning departure to the Berkshires Arts Festival at Ski Butternut in Great Barrington, MA. We’ll be there Friday, Saturday & Sunday. I’d love to meet more of you, please stop by booth 212 in the air conditioned Upper Lodge.
I’ll have lots of shots of the loons, along with lots of other critters and even a few of my steam locomotive images with me. On the 16th, I had time for a quick call on the Westons to see how the chicks were doing. They were seven and eight days old when I visited. There was an intruder on the pond. Mom and Dad went to deal with the intruder. Young chicks’ only protection is to flatten on the water and hope not to be seen. This is very effective when the water is ruffed by the wind. Much less so on a calm day. The intruder was dealt with and the parents returned to collect the chicks. Other than the brief kerfuffle, it was a quiet morning and I headed home early.
Leaving the Westons’ pond, I found a kaleidoscope of Canadian tiger swallowtail butterflies puddling in the road. Puddling is when the butterflies find something on the ground with nutrients they need. Often it is animal poop or urine. The butterflies gather to lick up the nutrients. And kaleidoscope is a great collective noun.
It took until the 24th for my schedule and a nice morning to coincide again. When I’d last visited the Middletons, they appeared to be looking for a new nest site after abandoning their first nest. It looked like they’d made their choice of spots and were tossing vegetation around to build a nest.
When I checked the spot they’d been building, I found an empty nest and no loons.
The great blue heron was foraging nearby, but he wasn’t helpful about giving me an update on the Middletons. Here he’s spotted a tasty meal far down the buffet and is slowly creeping closer before striking. He came up empty. Served him right for not telling me about the Middletons.
I went looking for the Middletons and found the other heron. This one was more talkative, but still no word about the Middletons. Elvis the Kingbird wasn’t gossiping about the Middletons either. Dragonflies and damselflies are finally plentiful on the ponds. The kingbirds started sitting on their eggs just about the time the dragonflies started showing up.
Turt Reynolds was just out for the sun. I kept looking for the Middletons.
The Middletons decided to reuse the nest site the male has used for the last several years. We lost his mate last year and this will be the first time the new Mrs. Middleton tries the site. Mr. M had come in to see how Mrs. was doing and if it was time for a shift change. She was content to keep sitting. I put out the Loon Preservation Committee’s sign and headed home.
I got an early start on the 25th and headed east to visit the Eastons. It was a beautiful calm morning on the pond. I’d intended to drift down past the nest to see how they were doing. But this bull moose showed up to browse along the water’s edge. I got to watch him dine for about 40 minutes. Just as the sun was creeping towards the pond, he decided it was time to head back up the hill.
Heading back up the pond, I found one loon foraging and the other on the nest. One of them is banded, but I don’t know which one yet. I’ve reported the band to the Loon Preservation Committee. When their intern has time, he’ll let me know which of the pair is banded. Here’s the unbanded bird comfortable on the nest.
I had chores waiting and started to head in. Hank was watching over the boat launch. I stopped to watch him preen for a bit. Herons must have great balance and strong feet to twist and turn enough to preen in a tree. Hank has finished his ablutions and is looking fine.
I heard from another Weston Family watcher. She’d paddled the pond and couldn’t find the family. I headed up on the 28th to see what was up.
I found the family foraging peacefully at the far end of the pond. Sadly, I found only one chick. The chick spent some time swimming in close formation with Dad.
The kingbirds were hunting dragonflies close to the water. They often hovered for a time while looking for the next meal. This one has caught something, you can barely see it in his bill. There are several kingbird nests I’ve spotted nearby. All the builders were very talented about building where there was a branch blocking my view.
As I headed back to the boat launch, I found these guys. They told me parking had gone up to two bucks.
The next morning I was up and going at 0300 to drive down to the heron rookery. I arrived just after the sun lit the nests. And just in time to see a parent arrive with a meal. The chicks are getting big. And they’re insistent on being fed when the adult arrives. The chicks squawk and grab the parent’s bill. Both adults tend the chicks and people can’t tell them apart.
The chicks are not at all gentle about grabbing their parent’s bill. The parent looks like he’s bracing for it…
The chick is politely requesting the parent pay attention and feed him.
All three chicks were dancing and grabbing at the parent. I’m not sure if the parent is stretching to get away from the chicks or if stretching helps regurgitate the food.
The parent is bending down to cough up the food into the nest. One of the chicks makes a last grab at the parent’s bill to see if he can claim the meal. I think the parent coughed up two perch or sunfish. No idea which chick grabbed them.
Having delivered the meal, the parent headed back out to forage some more. Or just to find some peace and quiet. The chicks all settled down and watched their world.
The chicks in another of the nests appeared to spend the morning judging me.
Back in the nest that had breakfast delivered, one of the chicks tried working his wings. He spent a few minutes flapping. I suspect this helps build up the muscles the chick will need when his feathers finish growing in.
Flapping finished, the chicks struck up a Cerberus pose.
The nests are in direct sun most of the day. It was rapidly warming, it must have been approaching 75° degrees by this time. Herons pant like dogs. They hold their mouth open and breath rapidly to cool themselves.
Back with the judgmental chicks, they started stirring in the nest.
A parent returns to the nest that had the meal earlier. The chicks start acting up on arrival. The parent is the one facing away from the camera.
The meal delivered and snarfed, the chicks start dancing and squawking – apparently heron speak for “please, sir I want some more.” The sun was getting high and there were things to be done so I headed home.
Yesterday I headed up to feed the black and deer flies on the Eastons’ pond. I was successful.
I checked the Eastons’ nest. There was an eggshell in the bottom of the nest, but no one was home. I went looking for them.
Before I found them, I found Hank out strutting his stuff looking for breakfast.
Hank found a school of fingerlings and made a meal of them. Herons swallow fish head first. Hank is rearranging one of the fish to go down properly.
After breakfast he preened for a bit to get him looking sharp for the day. Back to looking for the Eastons.
Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! I found the loons with two hungry chicks. Both parents were busy foraging for them.
Loon chicks are competitors and there’s no cooperation between them. If one chick is strong enough, it will drive the weaker chick away from the family. This pair spent a fair bit of the morning squabbling.
Another shot of them squabbling. Even with an 800mm lens, this is an enormous crop.
One of the parents delivering a crayfish. The loons that held the territory the last several years seemed partial to crayfish. All loons eat them, but on this pond it often seemed the most common meal. I’m curious if that was because they were abundant or if the loons just preferred them. We have at least one new loon in this year’s pair. The male that held the pond since 2019 did not return this year (he is banded). I suspect we have a new female too. The female that has been on the pond the last several years was a bit of a ditz. She wasn’t a particularly attentive parent, spending much of the time on her own while Dad tended the chicks. Both of this year’s loons were tending the chicks. I’m curious to see if crayfish is still the staple.
After several meals, the chicks climbed aboard one of the parents. The other took time to preen before foraging some more. The chick seemed ambivalent about the fish being offered.
Until the parent offering it turned away. The chick leapt into action to get the meal. The chicks soon settled in for a nap on a parent’s back.
The other parent took the chance to find some breakfast for himself before preening and stretching. I had to head in.
It will be late next week before I have a chance to get out again. I’ll let you know how all the chicks are doing.
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A real treat to see moose pictures! And Great Blue heron chicks have such personality… it’s all about them when it’s meal time! :o)
I love all your posts and fantastic photos! Keep up the good work.
Terrific images and beautiful scouting to find them all. Huge appreciation for what this all takes.
Thank you for another wonderful post. I especially like the longer looks at the herons!
Wonderful photographs. Thank you for the update.