For the past several springs I’ve been watching the rock wall in the Black Bear Exhibit for signs on nesting birds. To be more specific, I’ve been watching for swallows, Northern Rough-winged Swallows. Ever since the swallows showed up on April 2, I’ve been seeing them circling about the Wetlands and surrounding areas hawking insects. On April 15, I noticed one of the swallows inspecting potential nest holes in the diabase wall of the Bear Exhibit. Will they nest here?Read more
Posts tagged: #Northern Rough-winged Swallow
A Strange Nest, a Typical Nest, a Flycatcher, and a Swallow
A few weeks ago I got a call on the radio about a bird’s nest next to the Vapor Rings Exhibit in Catch the Wind. This was a “You gotta to see this” kind of call, so I hightailed it up to Vapor Rings to see for myself. I didn’t quite know what to make of the nest, but knew it was odd due to its location, on top of a post! It was a large nest (that’s a 6×6Read more
A Night Heron, Birds on the Move
Top Photo: Green heron eyes blue dasher (dragonfly). A Black-crowned Night Heron was seen on two separate days at the beginning of the period. The bird was in immature plumage and had not yet acquired the “black crown” of its common name. It may take 3 years to acquire full adult plumage. Black-crowned Night Herons are active at night and sleep the day away, so it may still be about tucked in out of sight amongst the willows. This isRead more