The eggs have hatched!

There are baby Tree Swallows and baby Bluebirds in the bird boxes that I have been monitoring! Well, duh, there were eggs there a few days ago. Eventually they were going to hatch, right? I know, but I'm still excited.

(it's the small things in life :)

The babies actually took me by surprise. They shouldn't have, but they did. I walked up to the first box and saw a few Tree Swallows circling overhead, same as I've seen on previous visits, nothing unusual. I knocked softly on the box to ensure the mother was not on the nest. I didn't hear anything so I opened the box slowly and peered into the nest to count the eggs. But there were no eggs! In there place was something I couldn't even describe for you, just weird colors and shapes that my brain was not comprehending. So I pulled down the edge of the nest to get a better look. Well, I saw what looked like baby birds, I guess. Aha, they must have hatched! But they didn't look like any baby birds I've ever seen and they weren't moving!!! I pulled my hand away and dropped the door to the box in horror... they were all dead!!!

Awwww... bummer... I just stood there with my bottom lip sticking out, what a let down... stupid birds... I then thought I should look again and try to figure out what happened, get a good look so I could describe it to the Nest Watch people for their research purposes. I opened the box again and pulled down the edge of the nest and to my delight, they started wiggling around. Then they started opening their beaks and flopping their little heads back and forth. Turns out they were sleeping!!!

Yeah! Oh happy, happy day!!! I snapped a picture and quickly closed up the box and got out of their so the parents could come back and take care of them. Now that I've woken them up I figured, just like human babies, they would cry until they were feed and cared for. As soon as I was about ten steps away, one of the Tree Swallows swooped into the box while the other one continuing circling overhead.

baby Tree Swallows

I was ready for the next bunch; the Bluebirds. I knocked like I always do. I didn't hear anything. I didn't see any adult Bluebirds, but I almost never do, they are much too timid to stick around. They must fly away as I'm getting out of the car. Anyway, I open the box, pull down the edge of the nest and the little guys immediately started opening and closing their beaks. Soooo cute!

baby Bluebirds

My third nest still had six eggs. Maybe when I go back today or tomorrow they will have hatched. Nest Watch is fun but I suppose I will have to prepare myself for the very real possibility of not all the little ones making it.

Stay tuned for more pictures, I'm sure the babies will be much cuter once they have a few feathers.

Tree Swallow

Still no baby birds. This is my proud Tree Swallow papa. He didn't fly away until I was about ten paces from the box, and even then, he stayed very close, circling right above me.

I saw a Bluebird this last trip to the boxes as well. She flew out of the box as I was approaching and quickly disappeared into the trees behind the field. I know she will be too quick and much too shy to ever catch a picture of her, but maybe I will be able to get a shot of the young when they hatch.

Nest Watch

I few posts ago I mentioned Nest Watch, a nest monitoring program with which I’ve recently become involved. I’ve been assign to monitor four boxes installed at the school campus a few miles up the road from my condo in Union, KY. Since I now have three nests and a total of 16 eggs distributed among those nests, I thought I would follow up with more information on the program. I’m very excited to see the use of the man-made bird boxes and am hopeful that soon there will be baby birds flying about and twittering songs in our neighborhood trees.

According to the organization’s website (http://nestwatch.org/about/overview/), the program is designed to “track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds, including when nesting occurs, number of eggs laid, how many eggs hatch, and how many hatchlings survive. Our database is intended to be used to study the current condition of breeding bird populations and how they may be changing over time as a result of climate change, habitat degradation and loss, expansion of urban areas, and the introduction of non-native plants and animals.”

The location of the four boxes that I monitor seems totally in line with the organization’s intend. The school campus is huge, includes elementary, middle, and high school, plus all the necessary venues such as gymnasiums, football and baseball fields, a quarter mile track, and several basketball courts… not to mention all of the parking lots and maintenance buildings. The neighborhood of these schools is all suburban-sprawl. Where now there is housing enough for thousands of families, ten years ago used to be nothing more than cow pastures and farms. I know the population is growing, I know growth is good for the economy (?), but how is all of the new construction effecting the habitat as a whole? Four bird boxes cannot possibly make up for the vast amount of trees lost in all of the construction. However, in the county’s defense, they have tried to leave some green spaces and develop a more sustainable community then many of the neighborhoods build a few decades ago.

So, in comes Nest Watch to track data. I’m sure they know bird population will decline as human population grows, but the first step is bringing attention to the situation. Installing these boxes and getting people like me to go out twice a week and look at them is one way of doing just that. What they do with the data is yet to be seen.

Here are four Bluebird eggs. This is actually a second attempt for my Bluebirds. When I first started monitoring the boxes, I had a nest with four Bluebirds eggs and a few days later they were gone! The nest was still there, I didn’t see any broken eggs or evidence of a critter getting into the box; the eggs were just gone. At first I suspected a hooligan kid from one of schools, but the fact that the nest was still there lead me to think otherwise. If a kid was going to take the eggs, don’t you think he would have taken the nest too, even if for no other reason than at have a safe way of carrying the eggs during his get-away? So, the only other conclusion I can come to was that the eggs fell victim to a snake. Though, that is also seems unlikely, since the bird box is on a post with a plastic baffle around it, designed specifically to stop animals and snakes from crawling into them. I’ll keep my eye out and see what happens to these four eggs. One last note on the Bluebirds, I have yet to see the parents. I’m told the Bluebirds are very timid and will not hang around the boxes when there are people around. I am anxious to actually see a Bluebird; I only know what they look like through pictures in my guide book.

These are Tree Swallow eggs. Two of my boxes have Tree Swallow nests with six eggs in each. These birds are very active and assertive around their nests. I’ve seen both parents at the boxes on my visits. Usually one is sitting on top of the box while the other in inside the box. They are beautiful birds. They have an iridescent blue head and back with a white throat and belly. The females have a browner tone then blue, but honestly, they fly about so fast that it is hard to tell the male from the female. Only when they land and turn their back to me can I actually tell the difference.

On my first visit to the boxes I got to watch the birds collect feathers for their nest. I was able to find a few feathers in the field, so I threw them up, into the wind, and watched as the bird swooped over to catch the feather and take it into the box. It seemed like they would play with the feather for a while before carrying it to the nest. They would fly real high and drop the feather, then swoop around and catch it. They did this several times before taking it to the box. Maybe that’s their way of deciding if it was a good feather or not.

The birds were a bit more aggressive on my last visit to the box so I think the eggs might be close to hatching. As I was walking toward the box, the bird that was perched on top flew up and circled overhead and another bird flew out of the box. I opened the box, peeked in, snapped a picture, closed it up quickly, and took a couple of steps back. As soon as I backed away the bird overhead buzzed me a couple of times, not coming too close to scare me, but close enough that I knew to stay back. Then the other one flew right back into the box. I’m told that if we’re quick, we won’t disturb the process, but I felt a little bad about scaring them away from the nest like I did. Next time I may have baby bird pictures!

Before I close this post, I need to make a quick comment, who says growth is good??? The population needs to stop growing and stop expanding into undeveloped land. Why are so many people having so many kids??? If every female just had one child, just one, maybe the planet could support the population a hundred years from now. I know, I know, I’m well on my way to being a grumpy old lady who enjoys the company of nature more than of people.

Side note – noise neighbor had a long conversation on his cell phone while sitting on his balcony, and he talked so loud, that I could hear him from inside of my condo… with the windows closed… and the TV on... I actually went for a walk around the neighborhood because I got sick of listening to him. Not only is he driving me off my own balcony, but now he is driving me out of my condo. 

Costa Rica Day 10

Our last day in Costa Rica was just as wonderful and exciting as the other nine days. We woke up early and scarfed down breakfast on the bus (leftovers from our beach picnic, mostly cookies!) while driving to our final excursion, a safari boat ride on the Tárcoles River. This river is famous for its huge crocodile population. We weren't just passively floating down the river with the crocodiles, either. Every once in a while our guide would jump out into ankle deep water to hand feed the monsters! Crazy, I know! You’ll love the pictures, but first, our feature bird.

Our bird of the day (sniff, sniff, our final day) is the Green Honeycreeper. This is another bird I only saw once.  It was at the Wilson Gardens feeder where I also spotted the Golden Hooded Tanager. The male and the female Green Honeycreepers are very different in color and unless someone told me they were the same species, I never would have guessed. The trained eye can tell that the body type, beak, and other species characteristics were identical, but novices like me just look at the pretty colors. The male is a brilliant turquoise-green and the female is a more subdued lime-green.

 

We saw some terrific shore birds, as well as the crazy crocodiles, on our boat ride. Thanks to Bob for capturing such amazing pictures!

Anhinga

Great Blue Heron

Double Striped Thick Knee

Crested Caracara

Roseate Spoonbill

Snowy Egret

Tricolored Heron

Wood Stork

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Yellow Headed Caracara

There were hundreds of smaller birds as well; they were just too hard to catch on camera. The area we were in was marshy, brackish water so you can image the plethora of birds present. But now… for the crocodiles!

Oh yeah, before we get to the crocodiles, here’s me and Jen, binoculars glued to our faces. For those of you that have not tried it, birding is fun! Ten straight days of looking through those binoculars and we were still going strong, anxious to catch a glimpse of the next cool looking bird. And if you are a birder and have not yet been to Costa Rica, you have to go. I was truly amazing!

Muy Loco!!!

After the boat ride, we were whisked away to the airport where there were many hugs goodbye to Carlos and Harrison. What a wonderful trip, couldn’t have been better without those two. If anybody is thinking of going to Costa Rica, or hears of someone thinking of going to Costa Rica, I encourage you to contact Carlos. Smart, funny, kind, charming, organized, honest, adventurous. I just can’t say enough about how great a guide he was. And mad props to Harrison, driver extraordinaire!

Adiós Costa Rica, espero volver muy pronto.

Costa Rica Day 9

On the ninth day in Costa Rica we finally hit the beach! And it was hot! And humid! And boy was I sweaty! And sticky! Memories of my childhood summers on the beaches of Florida came rushing back. Not that those memories were in any way bad. I loved riding my bicycle out to the beach and splashing in the waves and walking up and down the sandy shores. I had a marvelous childhood home and miss it terribly at times. But hot, humid, sweaty, and sticky are very accurate descriptors for those summers, just like they are perfect descriptors for day nine of my Costa Rican vacation.

Beach pictures to follow, first, our bird of the day, the Golden Hooded Tanager. I only saw this bird once, at the Wilson Gardens. His colors were amazing, so bright he seemed almost florescent. 

Now for the beach. The place we went was called Manuel Antonio National Park. It reminded me a lot of the parks in Florida, except we had to walk about a mile to the water. There were no massive parking lots to accommodate the guests. You had to pay to park in a grass lot outside of the park and then somehow lug all of your beach/picnic gear in with you. Since we were a large group, no one was overly burdened. We all just grabbed a bag and started walking. Of course, like any good national park, there were shops and street vendors along the way to entice the tourists to spend their vacation dollars. 

 

 

We saw lots of monkeys and birds on the walk in. The group often came to a stop when they saw people ahead of them looking up into the trees. I think it took us an hour to walk that mile to the beach.

Whew, made it to the water! Some people went swimming, some went for a walk along the shore, and some stayed in the shade. It was a very pretty area and we had a nice picnic lunch. 

We saw several lizards camped out under the trees. They were not afraid of people and seemed happy enough to share their shade with us. Big lizards, too. Not the cute little ones you see in Florida. These were komodo dragon size lizards. Well, okay, maybe they were more like iguanas than komodo dragons, but they were definitely bigger than the gecko-type lizards I’m used to.

If you like monkeys, this is the park for you. They were everywhere and just like raccoons and squirrels back home, they loved tourists because of the yummy goodies we brought into the park. We had to have someone guard our groceries at all times, which, as you’ll see from the pictures, didn’t work that well. The two types of moneys that we saw were the Capuchin and the Squirrel monkeys. Very cute, but after a while, they became a bit of a pest.

The Bandits!

Carlos told us how the monkeys liked put on a show for the tourists. A few would jump around the branches overhead and play with one another. This got everyone’s attention focused in one direction, looking up into the trees. Meanwhile, bandit monkeys would run across the ground and snatch goodies out the bags. Worked like a charm. Even after Carlos warned us, we fell for it.

It was a wonderful day at the beach. It was even nicer to have a pool at the hotel to jump into upon our return. Even though this was not Carlos’s first choice for hotels, it was great. It had everything we needed... AC and a pool. The gardens were meticulously maintained as well, just like all of the places we stayed on our trip. 

Here we are at our final dinner together. The restaurant had a killer view over the ocean and served fresh fish and fancy tropical drinks; a perfect ending to our Costa Rican vacation. It was hard to believe that our flight home was less than a day away.