Three Baby Wrens

Best wren shot of the day!

Cliff Swallow Babies

We took the boat down under the bridge to check up on the cliff swallow nests. Fewer babies than we expected, but we were happy to see three nests had hatchlings in them. We are certainly getting an education with this year's hatchings. While we were watching, one of the baby birds intentionally turned itself around so its rump was sticking out the opening of the nest and pooped. That's what is shown in the bottom picture. It's not an adult heading into the nest. We didn't know about this behavior, and we'll do a little research to verify what we saw, but it sure seemed intentional to us. What a great way to keep the nest nice and tidy! We have watched the adult wrens carry the fecal sacs from their nests, but this was even more impressive.

Baby Barn Swallow

This barn swallow baby was under the bridge that goes over Lake Nelson.

Wren Feeding

We think the baby wren on the right side of the picture sort of looks like Grandpa from the Munsters.

More Wrens

We ate dinner out on our deck last night, starting with chips and a nectarine salsa from Terhune farms. The wrens were active feeding their babies and the babies have grown and become more adventuresome so we can now see them from the opening in the bird house.

Mike set up the camera on a tripod with the remote. Whenever a feeding occurred, one of us would press the shutter release. Here are some of the better pictures.




Occasionally, when one parent is inside the house feeding, the other hands it an insect. Or should we say the other "beaks" it an insect. We used to call this a hand-off but now we call it a beak-off.



 

We grilled a nice fillet mignon for dinner but these baby birds enjoyed their insects just as much.

Osprey: Photo by William

Juvenile Osprey on nest taken at Edwin Forsythe NWR in Oceanville NJ on 7/31/2010

Black Crowned Night Heron: Photo by William

 

Black Crowned Night Heron taken at Edwin Forsythe NWR in Oceanville NJ on 5/29/2010.

Black Crowned Night Heron taken at Edwin Forsythe NWR in Oceanville NJ on 6/5/2010. I took this around 10:30 AM which is a pretty unusual time for a BCNH to be up and around at.

Snowy Egret: Photo by William

Picture of a Snowy Egret taken 6/5/2010 at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville NJ. It was fishing next to one of the flood-gates when the tide was coming in.

Great Blue Heron on little green lake

We were happy to see the great blue heron fishing from our floating island when we woke up this morning.

Summer Backyard Birds in New Jersey

Robin

Nuthatch

Chickadee

One very hot day, we caught this robin taking a bath in our waterfall.

The nuthatches have been very active on the tree trunks but rarely are found on the ground.

We've had quite a few chickadees. They also enjoy the waterfall, but they have also been coming to the tree closest to our deck.