A slower week this past week. I had a chance to visit the Weston loon family on a foggy morning and visited the great blue heron rookery.
I’ll be at the Berkshires Arts Festival at Ski Butternut in Great Barrington, MA on July 3, 4, 5. I’ll be in booth 212 lots of prints and note cards. Stop by and have a look.
Tuesday morning found blue skies over the hill in West Newbury and the Weston’s pond in deep fog.
The Westons weren’t to be found on the main part of the pond. I continued on to the cove where they nest. The off duty loon was promoting a shift change. You can see the loon on the nest at the far right hidden in the brush. I never did see their legs; without seeing the bands – or lack of them – I couldn’t tell who was who.
They did the nest exchange after a few minutes and the loon coming off duty stretched. And then set out to find some breakfast. Looks like he? came up empty this time.
An outsider loon flew over and called which set the Westons to tremoloing. The outsider flew on and the pond quieted. Very quiet. I paddled around looking for photos. Seems most of the critters had taken the morning off.
After a time, I found a red-winged blackbird out and about. He alternated foraging with calling out to announce his presence. As the fog lifted, painted turtles started climbing out of the water to bask.
The outsider loon returned and landed well up the pond. All three loons started calling. The loon on the nest left the nest to join the other home team loon on the main part of the pond. They were well separated from the intruder. I snuck back into the cove with their nest to see if I could see how many eggs they have. I took a quick look to find two and turned around to leave the cove. Only to find Slappy Gilmore the beaver entering the cove. He? circled the entrance to the cove, slapping regularly. If he’d gotten out of the way, I’d have left……
Here’s his tail making contact for the slap.
And each slap pushes his butt up out of the water. You can see his webbed feet clearly here.
The loons mostly called at each other before a brief skirmish with some wing rowing before the intruder departed.
Thursday morning, I was up early and headed to see the great blue heron rookery. I’ve been inundated with requests for the location of the rookery. I think I’ve answered everyone. I’m reluctant to share locations with folks I don’t know. Most are likely to be responsible, but the internet has more than a few bad apples.
On three of the four nests with herons, an adult was standing on the edge of the nest. The fourth had a heron still sitting.
After watching for a time, chicks started stirring. The three nests with adults standing guard all have at least three chicks. The chicks are still small enough that they can’t be seen when crouched down in the nest. They appear, then disappear fairly quickly, keeping me on my toes. The chicks are funny-looking gawky birds whose body parts all seem to come from birds of different sizes. I suspect they were designed by Jim Henson.
Two of the chicks in another nest. Here’s a shift change on the first nest. Both herons will birdsit the chicks and bring food. When one returns to the nest, they go through a ceremony where they stretch and bob their necks to each other. The returning parent brought back a sunfish which would seem to be much too large. The chick in back put it away without effort. Back at the second nest, the chicks were getting restless… This guy seems to be thinking that if breakfast isn’t delivered promptly, he’ll have to go get it on his own. Poking their parent, and pulling feathers, didn’t speed things up.
The parent alerted to something…. The mate returned. The parents swallow the chick’s food and regurgitate it for the chicks when they return. As the chicks get bigger, the parents will bring in larger food that they haven’t swallowed. The parent that had been on duty wasted no time heading off. The chicks have been fed, time for everyone to settle back in. And a returning parent feeding the chicks in the third nest.
The fourth and fifth nests had parents return, but I didn’t see any chicks. Guess I’ll have to go back.
And we’ve hosted bluebirds in one of the boxes on our deck again this year. I haven’t been posting, it seems like many people have cameras in their bird houses now. And, something is amiss with mine, the video quality has degraded. But, here’s a clip of the chick’s final few minutes as our guests before they fledge.
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Nice to see the herons with chicks here in New England. We watch them raise chicks, from tiny to nearly full grown, while we winter in Florida. Herons are much more used to people down there than here.
Nice to see the herons with chicks here in New England. We watch them raise chicks, from tiny to nearly full grown, while we winter in Florida. Herons are much more used to people down there than here.
Enjoyed the update! Marilyn
Thank you