Tag: baby starlings

Where wild Moms raise their kids

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals6 Comments

Moms raising their kids on the ground. A brown thrasher feeding her almost grown baby and starlings babies begging for that worm.

A tiny Mom, the ruby throated hummingbird, raising her baby in a tiny nest the size of a golf ball high up in a tree.

Moms raising babies up in trees include the pileated woodpecker and great horned owls.

These Moms raise their babies in rookeries, often high in trees or bushes over ponds with alligators to keep the babies safe from snakes and raccoons. These are roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, great egrets and little blue herons.

Raising babies near water and often with many kids to keep up with include mute swans, limpkins, wood ducks and geese.

Skimmers and oystercatchers raise their babies on the beach.

This is one tough Mom.  Since Pinellas county is so overpopulated most eagles nest in utility towers or cell towers. There are only a few out of 40+ couples that are in trees. This single parent Mom, in my neighborhood, lost her mate this winter when her babies were just starting to grow up. She raised these babies alone, getting food for them non-stop all day. She did get a boyfriend later on to keep her company. I’ll have more on this eagle soap opera later.

Big critters raising their babies in the woods.

Saturday's Critters

 

Critters in my neighbor’s yard.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photographyLeave a comment

Pulling into my driveway one Saturday afternoon I saw an osprey on my neighbor’s dead palm tree. I ran out the side door with my camera and the osprey was was looking at me like “Don’t steal my fish.”  I stood in the door frame to take these. I was afraid he would fly off but he didn’t. Just kept eating his fish.

Later in the afternoon I saw some juvenile starlings hanging around the same palm tree. I’m assuming these were the ones that were born in the nest in the same tree. They were there for a few hours that afternoon and then gone.  Since then, the dead palm tree was removed. Luckily the neighbor’s waited until the babies were gone. I miss looking out of the kitchen window to see what was on the tree but the tree could have been a hazard if a storm or hurricane came through.

Looking out the side bedroom window, a squirrel was taking a nap on my neighbor’s screened porch. Not a smart move for a squirrel. Too many hawks in the area that could fly by and grab him.

Backyard visitors this spring.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

In late spring, I heard some birds screaming in the backyard. I peeked out the bedroom window and saw the above, baby starlings being fed by the parents.  I ran and grabbed my camera and took the above through the window. I didn’t want to go outside and spook them.  These almost fully grown babies were very aggressive, almost attacking the parents to be fed. This went on for 20 minutes. They must have wiped out all of the worms, bugs and caterpillars we had in the backyard. Maybe I should have scared them off.

This was the last I saw of my neighborhood kingfisher back in late April, sitting on our dock. Hopefully she’ll show back up in late October again.

Now we get a lot of house sparrows on our dock.

A little blue heron walking through our yard.

Blondie and her babies came by the house recently. This beautiful cream colored mallard lives in our neighborhood. She usually has 2 sets of babies each year.