Eleven Baby Ducks: Beat that Octomom

 

We are happy to see our little floating island planter getting some use.  So far, we've had just a pair of sandpipers, a lone duck or turtle on it.  At dusk today, we saw the mother and all the baby ducks on it.  It's hard to count them on the island, but all 11 were on it.  She must be a very good mother.

 

Cedar Waxwing

It's always a treat when a cedar waxwing comes to our yard.

Baby Bird Feeding

 

A pair of tufted titmice

Baby Grackle

It's baby bird time in our yard. A family of tufted titmice visit the feeder early each morning. We usually don't photograph grackles but we make an exception for baby birds.

Baltimore Oriole

In the morning, this oriole's song sounds like "I'm the prettiest bird."

Black-crowned Night Heron Chicks: Baylands Nature Preserve (California)

The highlight of the bird watching trip to Baylands Nature Preserve was seeing a nest of baby night herons. There may have been three in the nest, but two were visible most of the time. We have a black-crowned night heron or two in a tree near us but have never seen chicks before.

Snowy Egrets and Night Herons: Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto CA

Snowy Egret

Mike had a meeting in Silicon Valley last week and dropped by the Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto CA. It's an easy spot to find with a great map that even points to the area where the night herons nest. There were quite a few night heron nests with snowy egrets mixed in. While most of the egrets had their feathers under control, he got these pictures for Chris who likes birds with wild hairdos.

Black-crowned Night Heron

More from Baylands: Palo Alto, CA

Lesser Goldfinch (western variety)


Cliff Swallow in nest


American Avocet


Clark's Grebe with a fish


Song Sparrow


Anna's Hummingbird


A brief birdwatching trip to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve showed a good variety of birds. Song Sparrows were everywhere and made their presence known. The Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center was built to house exhibits but the area under the roof was covered with cliff swallow nests. The only disappointment was that I didn't see the rare clapper rail, but the tides and time of year weren't ideal. I may be back next winter.

Baby Black-necked Stilt: (California)

Here's a photo of a Black-necked Stilt chick. Aren't baby birds cute?

Killdeer pretending it has a broken wing (California)

While walking along a path at Coyote Point Recreation Area in San Mateo, a killdeer made a big fuss and then pretended to have a broken wing. Because I watch the Discovery Channel (or was it Zoboomafoo), I knew it was trying to distract me from its nest and perhaps its chicks. I did look around for the baby birds, but didn't find any. I did follow the killdeer to get a photo of the broken wing act so I guess it worked.

Blackpoll Warblers

We're still getting migrating birds, mostly warblers. This morning there were about 8 blackpolls. This is the first year we saw them in the yard. The male of this bird species has the black cap.