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The Last of the Backyard Migrants

Posted Thursday, May 23, 2019Saturday, May 18, 2019 Jess YarnellPosted in Birds

One morning in late April, I spent a couple of hours in the backyard with my camera, hoping to see our first-of-spring baby Cardinal and maybe a few migrants. It was a cool morning and pleasant to hear the calls of “my” birds as they woke up. We’ve been seeing the occasional Eastern Bluebird, although they don’t choose to pose for the camera. I was excited to see a Ruby-throated Hummingbird as he migrated through…

I’d been hearing the chips of a baby cardinal for a couple of days. I was hoping he’d make an appearance for my camera. He did! They are so cute and trusting at this age.

A female Red-winged Blackbird flew in and posed in the pretty morning light. The honeysuckle vine on my bird blind is a definite crowd-pleaser! The birds love to hang out up there.

I took these photos on the morning that I said goodbye to the last of my Painted Buntings. There were two greenies remaining. They stuck together like glue, perching on the same branches and following each other from salvia to salvia.

Painted Bunting "Greenie" — Last-of-Season Painted Bunting “Greenie”

On the ground below, a Common Ground Dove flew in. I mentally begged him to hop onto a branch with a nice background. Instead he strutted through the lawn and showed off his breeding colors.

The hummingbird came back and started nectaring from a nearby Amistad salvia. It’s fun to photograph the males and try to capture their gorgeous necks that shine bright red when the sun hits them at the perfect angle.

As I sat back in my comfortable chair, watching the world of the backyard, I heard a rather unexpected party arrive. A family of ducks pushed themselves through a break in the hedge and paraded across the backyard. I grabbed a few headshots with the big camera and then pulled out my phone for the group shot. It was a mom and her eight almost-grown babies. That’s a really good mom – it’s rare to see that many grow up together!

Mottled Duck Headshot

Great Blue Herons Building Nest

Posted Tuesday, May 21, 2019Saturday, May 18, 2019 Jess Yarnell2 CommentsPosted in Lake Morton

The last time I went to Lake Morton in mid-April, I found a pair of Great Blue Herons building a nest at the top of a cypress tree. Given that most herons start constructing their nests in early winter, I figured these guys had lost their baby and were attempting a re-nest. Or perhaps they were juveniles and this was their first time around. One bird appeared to already be incubating and the other went back and forth with nesting material.

Great Blue Herons are fun to watch when they are building nests. The male will fly off, spend a long time finding the perfect branch, and then bring it back to the nest.

Great Blue Heron Nest-building: The Stick Handoff!

It was a cloudy morning. The sun kept disappearing behind the clouds. There was a small window between the trees and the challenge was to focus while the bird was in it.

After a while, the male was chased out of the prime stick tree by a fussy crow. The crow started attacking him and the heron took off in great indignation. After that, he foraged in the cypress tree immediately next to the nest. It was so close that he didn’t really have to fly – he did more of a hop from treetop to treetop. Some of the poses ended up being pretty funny!

There was one final image that I should have captured to finish telling the story of this heron nest. When I first got there, the street under the trees was clear. When I left, the street was cluttered with the branches that the bird had dropped in his endeavors!

Limpkin Nest

Posted Saturday, May 18, 2019Thursday, May 16, 2019 Jess Yarnell4 CommentsPosted in Lake Morton

During my last visit to Lake Morton in mid-April, I came across a Limpkin nest. Although I’ve photographed tiny Limpkin babies before, this was the first time I’d encountered a family at the nest. It was nestled in the reeds, without clear line of sight for photography, but I sat and watched it for well over half an hour.

There were six babies at this nest. It was late morning and the babies weren’t particularly active. They napped in the branches next to an apple snail shell from breakfast.

Occasionally the babies would get up, walk around, and then plop back down. Limpkin babies remind me a lot of Sandhill Crane colts (except Limpkins are brown, of course). Especially when the babies stretch their wings…

I finally tore myself away, wishing I could return in a day or two when the parents would take the babies for a walk in the nearby grass. It’ll be fun to watch them grow up this summer!