Fawns

We took the boat out in hopes of finding some orioles. Instead we saw two baby deer without a mother nearby. They were unafraid of us watching them from across the lake, and they ate and played at the edge of the water for quite a while.


Below the deer is showing reason number 23 that we don't swim in Lake Nelson:

Baby Oriole

After quite a bit of searching, Chris found the baby oriole in a tree. The brightly colored male Oriole is still feeding this fledgling which helps us keep track of the baby while it hops and takes small practice flights between branches and even changes trees.

Cliff Swallows building nests

While out in the boat, we often see barn swallows with nests under the bridge.  Today, we saw some Cliff Swallows building nests on the side of the bridge.  We watched for a while as they carried mud over to build the nests.  These are actually photos of two different nests, one just being started and another partially completed.

Summer Backyard Birds in New Jersey: Chickadee, Robin, Catbird

Black-capped Chickadee

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Although the spring migration has ended, there still are quite a few birds in our backyard. This year, the antics of the catbirds are particularly amusing. They eat the jelly that we had set out for the orioles and they eat the insects that Chris stirs up while planting. The most amusing part is that they'll dip insects in the jelly and take them back to the nest to feed their babies.

Empty Nests

It's a bit of a sad day around our house. We didn't see the orioles feeding the baby birds this morning although we heard a baby oriole chirping. Around noon, Chris found a baby oriole two trees away from the nest being attended to by the male oriole. It still looks too small to fly to us but it must have. We didn't see it in the evening. It seems too soon to leave the nest to us.



We went around the front of the house in the evening and checked on the wren house but it appeared empty. We did see a few baby wrens flying around the trees with the parents but they were too fast to photograph. One landed on an electrical wire but that's no place for a baby bird.

 

While it's nice to see the babies grow, it happens so quickly and we'll miss them.
Perhaps we'll see the parents in the Caribbean this winter. 

Finally, A Baby Baltimore Oriole

Last year, we had a Baltimore oriole nest in the yard but never saw the baby birds. We've been watching and waiting and finally saw a baby out of the nest being fed. There are at least two and we'll be monitoring nervously because the nest hangs over the water and the babies are hopping between branches but can't fly yet.

Summer Ducklings

Lake Nelson's eleven baby ducks are almost the size of their mother now. We were surprised one evening to see another mother with eight tiny baby ducks. She isn't as attentive a mother and some of the ducklings were at the top of the dam and others at the bottom.  However, we were happy to see the family reunited the next day.

A busy wren house

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One disadvantage of living on a lake is all of the insects, unless you eat insects. The house wrens find the location ideal to raise a family. Chris first saw lots of feeding on Monday at the wren house and heard the baby birds chirping. We set up the bird cam but the photos didn't come out very good. So, we set up the DSLR with a remote control shutter release and waited. The birds feed every few minutes, so we didn't have to wait too long and we are happy to see each insect get consumed by these chirping baby birds. Both parents feed, but we can't tell them apart.

We also saw something we hadn't expected. The birds clean the nest by carrying off "fecal sacs" that the babies produce. These "disposable bird diapers" are produced by the babies' digestive system the first few days and make it easier to keep the nest clean. The parents drop them far away from the nest so the droppings don't leave clues about the location of the bird nest.

I know we are posting a bit too many pictures, but there are few hundred we didn't post.



     

Great Crested Flycatcher

"Cresty," as we call this great crested flycatcher, is welcome to all the insects he can eat.

A Frog

 

We hear the frogs frequently but didn't see one until yesterday. Chris thinks some things are best hidden.