White Rock Lake Eagle Family April 23, 2024

Recently, we have been checking in a few times a week on the bald eagle family that's taken up residence near White Rock Lake. The adults, Nick and Nora, showed up a few years ago and have had a few attempts at nesting but based on what we've heard each nest ended up either blown down by a storm or was in an area with too much foot traffic. This year though, they took over what we understand was the nest of a red tailed hawk. The hawk's loss is the eagle's gain as they have two chicks in the nest. From talking with people who live nearby and have been monitoring the nest daily, it looks like the chicks should fledge in about 5-6 weeks. You can see movement in the next in this clip with one of the chicks stretching their wings. 

This week instead of just taking binoculars with us, I took my Nikon D750 camera and captured this video. It's not great as the longest lens I have is 200mm and even with a 2X teleconverter and using the cropped (DX) mode while shooting, it's nowhere near the resolution and sharpness of images being shared online but some of the folks who shoot the eagles regularly. Having a 1000mm lens (even a 500mm lens with the 2X TC) sound tempting but that would be a big investment and I don't often shoot subjects that would benefit from that long of a lens. 

Instead, we'll continue following the other folks who post such amazing photos of this bald eagle family. 

Lakewood Advocate: Bald Eagle Article

Dinner and Potty Time

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.  

A Visitor at the Wren Nest

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...

A Busy Day at the Wren 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). 

Music 

Spring Morning 

by Maarten Schellekens 

Commercial Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Momma Wren

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. 

Stay tuned! 

Music by Podington Bear

"Wren"

Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC) 

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ 

Chad Crouch

They're Back!!

Well, no video (at least not for now) but this past weekend I realized a Finch family was nesting on our porch. 

I had been expecting Mama Finch to use one of the other posts as that is where she nested last year but this time she's on the post closest to the front door. 

A small brood this time, just two eggs so far. It is possible she wasn't done yet though so I'll check again this weekend. 

Stay tuned!

 Meanwhile, in other news, no luck so far in having an owl family move in. The owl house I mounted on one of our Cedar Elm's last year is now home to a squirrel family. 

I had been shooing Mama Squirrel out of the owl house every few days in the first few months of this year and she seemed to have finally gotten the message. However, we were gone for a week and came home to find things sticking out of the entrance to the owl house and when I checked it turned out to be half full of sticks, grass, etc. More to the point, it was full of squirrel. 

I tried as I had in the past to shoo her out but this time not only would she not leave, she was very vocal. Given her change in behavior, I have to assume she already has a litter. 

Now, we wait. In about 10-12 weeks, her pups should be moved out at which time I'll clean out the owl house and close it up for a while. Maybe the next time I open it, an owl will get to it first. 

Watching the Nest

With the latest clutch of chicks large enough to sit up in the nest, it was fun to pull up the live stream for grandkids Harper and Jack to watch on the TV.

Feeding Time for June Chicks

The June chicks have hatched and within a few days were large enough to see in the nest as they crane their necks, mouths wide, for food from their parents.

June Eggs Have Hatched!

The June clutch has hatched. Lots of activity on the nest these days as the parents come and go with four hungry mouths to feed. Watch the live feed for glimpses of the chicks each trying to get their share.

It's amazing how fast they grow... before you know it, these chicks will have fledged!

New Finch Nest Under Construction

Momma Finch abandoned the nest she built in early March and instead has started building a new one on top of the next post over on our porch. Hopefully, we'll see some eggs in the next week or so.

A New Finch Nest!

The May brood of Finch chicks fledged about 10 days ago so I went out today to check the nest, see whether Momma Finch has started preparing for her next clutch of eggs.

She absolutely has, though not as she did the last time. This time, instead of cleaning up the nest, trimming the edges and adding new material, she abandoned the original nest and started a new one the next post over.

The new nest is still a bit crude, sticks hanging over the edge, and there are no eggs yet. However, based on past behavior, within the next week or so we should see eggs in the nest, first one or two then within a few days as many as six.

I've removed the old nest and cleaned up the top of that post. I've also moved the video camera, so that the live stream is of the new nest. Join me in watching over the next month or so as this Finch pair start raising their third brood of 2020.

Nest Update: 4 Eggs

After doing a little more research on finches, I discovered that it may take several days for Mom to lay all her eggs. Since the March clutch had 4 eggs but there were only 2 eggs in the nest when I checked a few days ago, I took another look today. Sure enough, now there are 4!

Stay tuned to watch the May clutch hatch, feed, grow and fledge.

More Eggs!

After the first brood of finch chicks fledged, the mother started adding new material to the nest and cleaning it up but was only around a few times a day. Last night, the mother spent the night on the nest for the first time in weeks. I took advantage of a time this evening when she was away from the nest to take a look, and found there is a new clutch of eggs. Just two this time, but that's not unusual. According to a Wild Bird Watching article on Finches, they typically lay between 2 and 6 eggs at a time. So, for the next few weeks, most of the activity will be the parents coming and going and the mother spending a lot of time sitting the nest but it won't be long before there will be new chicks to watch. Enjoy!

Feeding Time in the Nest

Finch Nest (streamed live on April 15th)

Inside the Finch Nest

Once the comings and goings of the parents caught our attention, the obvious next step was to find out what they had in the nest. At this point, there appeared to be two hatchlings and one or more eggs.