More baby black necked stilts

On June 30, 2012June 30, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography9 Comments

The first family I found back in mid-May was still in the pond by the front entrance to the waste plant. This was taken a few days later. The baby was just a little bit bigger. All of these pictures were taken from the car window. I didn’t want to get out and spook the stilts.

I found a 2nd family across the street. This baby is only a few days old. It was so tiny. These were taken with my 400mm and extremely cropped.

The tiny baby had a sibling that was hiding in the weeds.

The parent was doing the broken wing display even though I was sitting in the car. They fly away from the baby and act hurt to try to distract the predator away from the baby. I did not stay long here at all, only a few minutes.

Another adult was feeding at a different part of the ditch. There seems to be more stilts here this summer than in the past. Maybe, the ones being born here keep coming back.

Camera Critters

Hungry baby starlings in my backyard

On June 20, 2012June 20, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

We recently re-sodded our backyard. We’ve been watering almost everyday and that seems to bring a lot of worms to the yard. Which also brings a lot of birds looking for worms. My hubby said last Saturday “There’s a lot of birds running around on the ground.” I quickly peeked out and said “Oh, those are starlings.” He noticed that the black birds were feeding the brown birds. He said “Why would the black ones be feeding those other birds?” I took a longer look and said “They’re feeding babies!” We had several parents with at least 10 babies running around the backyard all day. I don’t know where they nested but it must have been close by. The babies looked like they were foraging for food but still kept running to the parent to be fed. They were relentless, constantly screaming at the adults. It was fun to watch them. All above taken through the dining room window. I didn’t want to go outside and scare them away. They looked hungry.

Baby black necked stilts at the waste plant.

On June 16, 2012June 16, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

“Life is good so far.”

“Who is that bird in the water?”

“Gotta itch.”

“What do you want, crazy lady with the black thing stuck to your face?”

Yes, I work really close to a large waste-to-energy plant. There are water run off ditches that run along side of the waste plant. The advantage to this is that there are always birds in the ditches. On my way to get lunch I usually keep my eye open for anything interesting hanging around. Every spring the ditches are home to a handful of black necked stilts. Last year, we had several babies so I kept my eyes open this year. One night, a couple of weeks ago, I drove slowly along the road and noticed two parents together. I pulled off on the grass and saw the babies. They were only a few days to a week old. Unfortunately, it had been cloudy and rainy for several days so it was tough to get good sunny pictures of the babies. Plus, they stay pretty far over on the other side of the ditch and this family was right in front of the entrance to the waste plant so I stayed in my car and took these out the window. I usually stay inside anyway because these stilts are pretty skittish and I didn’t want to freak them out. I took a handful of pictures and left. Time to go home.

Camera Critters

Crazy lunatic tricolored herons

On June 9, 2012June 9, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

The three stooges. This was the first nest you came to on the boardwalk so they were greeting everyone that came in that morning. They must be one of the first babies that were born this spring. They are almost fully grown.

Even when the babies look grown up they still have that spiky hair sticking up on the top of their heads that make them look so comical.

These birds were jumping around waiting for mom to come back with food.

Upclose profile. He’s probably 6-8 weeks old.

Parent (on the left) feeding one of it’s almost grown offspring. The one on the far right is waiting his turn.

The parent on the left is running away from his screaming crazy babies.

“Feed me, feed me” These juvenile tricolored herons were screaming all morning. They are now much more animated and louder as they get older.

On my third trip to Gatorland to see the nesting wild birds in the rookery there, the baby tricolored herons were growing up fast. They are the funniest birds to watch out of all the big water birds that nest there. The great egrets and blue herons scream but don’t look as comical as the tricolored herons do. There were juveniles only a few months old walking on the rails of the boardwalk. They got pretty close to the photographers there. I kept having to back up to take pictures. It was a lot of fun watching these guys grow up.

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Baby limpkins

On May 19, 2012May 19, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

On my after work walk around Kapok Park, I saw an adult limpkin down at the end of the creek. At first I thought “I don’t feel like walking down there to get another picture of a limpkin.” It was just starting to get dark and time was running out quick. But, I noticed he was eating. So I headed down there and guess what I saw?

A baby limpkin hiding in the grass.

Not just one but four babies. All hiding in the grass. They looked to be just a couple of days old.

One of the parents stayed close to them and kept pulling the tall grass around them. I sat down for a few minutes and watched her. She seemed to be making a makeshift nest for the night. Finally, she plopped down on top of them and looked like she was going to stay there for the night.

Camera Critters

Tricolored heron babies

On May 16, 2012May 1, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

Just a few crazy baby tricolored herons from my recent trip to Gatorland in Orlando. The mangrove bushes were full of nests. I think these birds get the prize for being the funniest looking babies. Most of the great egret babies were getting big and the tricolored heron babies were just being born. I think all of these are only a few days old. They were constantly screaming to be fed. Next are the blue herons and cattle egrets. They start a little later in the season. They were just building nests and sitting on eggs. Hopefully, those will be born in time for my trip in May.

Baby birds at Gatorland

On May 7, 2012May 8, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography21 Comments

More like sibling rivalry than brotherly love. Baby great egrets.

Who’s going to win this battle?

“Mom, where’s my fish?”

“All together now, MOM, where’s our fish?”

This tiny one’s beak was bigger than the rest of his body.

I took this from across the lake. I rarely see baby wood storks.

I also took this anhinga nest from across the lake. The middle baby had his head in mom’s beak getting a bite.

A handful of shots from my trip to Gatorland in mid-April. The great egrets, which are usually born first, are getting big. The ones that I took in mid-March look like full-grown adults now. The baby tricolored herons were just being born when I was there. More on those later.

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