Over the years, we have brought home oyster shells from various trips and have them scattered about in the beds around the house. Recently, a few of them have ended up down in the yard next to a tree. Curious what was going on, I placed a camera in the front bed and returned the shells to the bed. It turns out the "thief" was one of the many squirrels who live in the large trees in our yard. I'm not sure what the attraction is, whether they just want to play with them or perhaps chew on them for the calcium.
With the weather starting to cool down below the century mark and cloudy skies, I spent time capturing the beauty of our sage that just flowered and of the bees enjoying it.
Out for a walk yesterday along the northwest side of White Rock Lake, Luna and I came upon a Great Egret, easily identified by its yellowish beak and black legs. I figured as soon as Luna pulled on the lead, leaning in its direction to get a better look, it would fly off but instead it flew up to the railing and just sat there checking things out. Finally, Luna wrapped her lead around my legs trying to get a better view of the Egret and it took off. That was a pretty amazing close encounter!
Ok, folks... for those of you who get squeamish, this might be a video to pass up on. For those of you who love SCIENCE and NATURE, check it out!
Did you watch the last video with the anole prowling around the wren nest? Well, this time one of the parents showed up with a lizard as dinner for one of the lucky chicks. I am not sure whether it is an anole or a gecko but it's not the anole from the other video... looking back at timestamps, this video was actually from earlier in the evening than the anole's visit.
I know that wren's are one of the birds that change their eating habits when feeding young, switching from seeds and such to live food, but I had no idea that would include something as large as a lizard!
As for the other bit that might make some folks squeamish, yes, after each meal the parents take away a fecal sack from one of the chicks, disposing of it somewhere well away from the nest. Baby bird diapers!
As gross as this may seem, it actually makes sense compared the alternative, a very messy nest. According to this article by the Audubon Society, the practice is not well-understood by avian scientists.
Recently, shortly after one of the parents fed their chicks, the wren nest had a brief visitation from an anole (what we used to mistakenly call chameleons since they often change color to match the background). If there had still been eggs in the nest instead of hatchlings, he might have had a meal. Though as you'll see in the next video, it may be a good thing he didn't come around while the wren parents were at the nest...
Our first real glimpse of activity around the nest these two Carolina Wren's built in the yucca in our backyard (other than Momma Wren sitting on the nest).
Our Weimaraner, Luna, kept wandering around the yucca in the corner of our backyard. On closer inspection, what she was interested in was a bird nest with 5 eggs in it. I put up some fencing material that would keep Luna out but not interfere with the parents coming and going from the nest, then set up my camera a bit away from the nest with a telephoto lens and shot video for about an hour.
After bringing the camera in and inspecting the video, I found a section where the mother had come back to the nest and was sitting on the eggs. This is a clip from that video.
We aren't sure how long the eggs have been there but wren eggs take 12-16 weeks to incubate and it hasn't been that long since our last freeze so our best guess is that we'll see hatchlings in late April or early May.
