Goodbye Lake Nelson

Black Crowned Night Heron



Barn Swallows


Cedar Waxwing


Gray Catbird


Tufted Titmouse with a peanut


Chipmunk


Well, this is really it. We fly to California at 7:40am tomorrow. In between packers, car transport and movers, we got in some backyard birding. One new discovery this week was the barn swallows feeding juveniles. Barn Swallows almost never land in our yard, but we had juveniles in trees being fed by adults catching the mosquitoes on the lake. Cedar waxwings are infrequent visitors but they were out on the lake catching insects as well. The night heron flew by and landed on the gate by the dam. We took a walk down and saw him on a log over the stream and then higher in a tree. The catbirds are finishing the last of our jelly and the titmouse took our last peanut.

Barn Swallow Nest

Barn Swallow Nest

Baby Barn Swallow

This barn swallow baby was under the bridge that goes over Lake Nelson.

Swallows

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow


We took the boat out again to keep track of the swallows that live under the bridge that goes over the stream that feeds Lake Nelson. Both the barn swallows and the more rare cliff swallows appeared to be caring for fledglings. We could occasionally see a baby cliff swallow through the opening of the nest.

Juvenile Swallows

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Tree Swallow

The swallows have been out in full force this spring. The juveniles in these pictures were part of groups that seemed to be honing their flying skills. The immature tree swallow made several aborted attempts at entering the duck house, coming within inches of our heads a couple times. It's possible its nest was in the duck house since we also had swallows frequenting it last month. The swallow interrupted the house wren and rested on the duck house. We saw an adult come to feed it, but the feeding was broken up when they were chased away by the orange avenger, aka the Baltimore Oriole, enforcing the no-fly zone within 50 feet of their nest.

Barn Swallows from Cape May

 

 

Swallows

The upper photo is a barn swallow with the buff colored chest.
The lower photo shows a male and female tree swallow, we think.

Baby Barn Swallows

Out in our boat yesterday morning, we went under the bridge and saw these two adorable baby barn swallows. They were constantly screeching for food. Today, we went by again and got a photo of a slighly older baby swallow.