When the lake is still and the sunlight is just above the horizon
the clay that often occurs in the lakebed reflects and tints everything with a burnished brassy hue.
These shiners and their shadows clearly stood out as they slowly swam past the point.
VIDEO of Ice trying to get his father to feed him is at http://youtu.be/l5KEIkWotRs
I watched this tufted titmouse land on the shoreline of Jordan Lake.
These birds are seen and heard all year here.
But, I had never seen one pick up a fresh water mussel shell.
He flew to a branch with it, clutched it in his feet, and held it tightly against the branch.
Then he proceeded to nip off and swallow pieces of the shell.
Birds need calcium, especially during the egg-laying time of the year.
Very interesting to watch this titmouse getting his calcium dose.
Note the piece of string littering the shoreline – I picked it up as soon as the bird finished what he wanted of the shell. I detest trash!
VIDEO at http://youtu.be/n-T_L_44l8E
in the video: There was a loud sharp boom – my first thought was gunshot – but I quickly realized it wasn’t.
Poor Ice, however, reacted instantly. He had been perched about 600 feet from the nest when the sound occurred.
It took him about 6 seconds to get back to the place that was safest – the nest.
He was still nervous when he got there and showed it by picking at food and constantly looking about.
Notice how he cues in on the small bird passing by.
Finally Ice leaves and ends up on the perch where he had been when the disturbance occurred (not shown in the video).
In the photo below Ice is making the landing at the safety of the nest – a landing worthy of his parents!
in the VIDEO at http://youtu.be/Nxw8xvvBxdY Petruchio, the father bald eagle, delivers a fish. Wynd, the fledgling, comes to the nest.
She piles into her father and then she immediately mantles – places her wings – over the food as a sign that she now owns the food.
Wynd is telling dad he better not try to take it back. Petruchio stands his ground, not moving away.
When Wynd finally gives to his presence – she lowers her head, mouths with her beak and doesn’t try to look him in the eyes, Petruchio calmly leaps up onto a limb.
Wynd waits quite a while to see what her father’s plans are and when she realizes he isn’t going to demand the fish back she picks it up and moves it out of the confrontational area.
All young ones have to be given a chance to be independent and yet cooperative.
Even eaglets have to learn that some fights are better won by giving the respect they hope to earn back someday with a potential mate.
There is a slow motion portion that shows the interaction.
in the photo below Wynd is mostly hidden behind Petruchio
In the hours that happen, more often than not, in between seeing eagles to photograph –
I get to watch the rest of Jordan Lake’s diversity.
So it happened a week ago that I saw a pair of tiny, tiny, wee, small birds.
My first thought was “who put the bent stilts on those sparrows”.
I had a wonderful 15 minutes photographing what turned out to a pair of least sandpipers.
The smallest shorebirds in the world, wow!
For size reference, note that the bird has a foot on a piece of pine straw.
They are common on the coast but very rare at Jordan Lake.
There is a 2m 46s video of one of these “peeps”, as they are called, at my YouTube page https://youtu.be/R1clry4ut9s
doc ellen's journey 