Swallows and Flowers

Top Photo: Family of geese pass behind recently fledged family of northern rough-winged swallows The young swallows are watching their parents fly overhead, and begging for food. Each year a family of northern rough-winged swallows brings their newly fledged young into our wetlands for training. The adults want the young birds to hit the skies and catch their own insects on the wing. The fledglings seem more interested in begging for handouts than learning how to hawk insects. But eventuallyRead more

Swallows Return with Family

If you remember back in March, I reported that Northern Rough-winged Swallows had returned from their southern winter quarters and were zooming around the Wetlands. I also mentioned that they nest nearby and that they sometimes bring their young to our Wetlands for flying lessons, lessons on how to catch their preferred food, flying insects. The swallows did so this week. For the past few days I’ve been watching as the parents dip, dive, and whirl about the Wetlands, catching insects onRead more

Early Nesters, Arrivals, Delayed Departures

It was a busy time for birds. Besides the Red-shouldered Hawks snatching frogs out of the Wetlands, Carolina Chickadees feeding their young in a nest in a Loblolly Pine between Catch the Wind and Explore the Wild, and the Red-bellied Woodpeckers sitting on eggs in another loblolly in front of the Lemur House, many new seasonal arrivals and migrants have been observed. After a seven-month absence, a Green Heron was back on station on 28 April. As if it hadRead more