Jordan Lake. The barn swallows and tree swallows shared the same branch this morning. Most of the birds are barn swallows – the ones with the orange tinted undersides. The birds with the brilliant white chests and chins are tree swallows. They were all working hard to make their feathers straight and clean before starting their feeding flights.
Chatham county
CategoryWind-blown Kingbirds
Jordan Lake. The eastern kingbird is quite a striking flycatcher. The white striped end of its tail is a great field identification mark. I don’t know which the wind was bouncing harder: the kingbirds or my camera! The soft high-pitched chittering is from the kingbirds.
Who Wins the Fish?
Jordan Lake. First Nest. Dad Bard landed in the nest with a small fish. All 3 chicks were watching his feet. They knew where the fish was. Then there was a shoving match to see who would end up with the fish. It was Big Chick that won the fish. All three chicks are doing well. Arrows in first photo point to the 3 chicks.
Dance!
Jordan Lake. Some days, you just gotta, I mean you just really have to dare to dance on the point of a rock, says the red winged-black bird.
Exercising!
Jordan Lake. First Nest. The chicks this morning were doing a lot of wing wapping and trampolining. The biggest of the chicks was certainly hogging most of the space much to the annoyance of the other two chicks. The big chick was getting a lot of vertical air between its feet and the nest!
Nest Repair
Jordan Lake. First Nest. With 3 rapidly growing chicks bouncing around in the nest, the parents have to bring in sticks and repair the nest. Dad Bard went dashing out and grabbed the top of a small pine tree and headed back to the nest. That’s him piling into the nest from the left-hand side while mom Kate is on the right hand side with fish to feed the chicks. Crowded!
doc ellen's journey 