Protect and serve

Protect and serve — not the police, parents — and not people, birds. 

While chicks are in the nest, bird parents have a seemingly endless task of ferrying food in and waste out. And then there is the job of keeping predators at bay.

A dipper parent brings an aquatic insect to its four demanding chicks.

These dipper parents have already done much to protect their chicks from land predators. The nest is under a bridge high over a raging stream. Further, the bridge deck prevents a raptor’s attack from above. Nevertheless, the nest must be kept clean. Chicks expel faeces in a white sac which parents then remove and discard. 

As with dippers, both Tree Swallow parents deliver insects to the nest. This is a male. The chicks are not yet big enough to be peeking out.

Having delivered food to the nest, the female swallow heads off on the endless round.

And both remove faecal sacs from the nest and drop them far away.

With all the coming and going, sometimes parents collide.

Tree Swallows must protect their nest. In this case, a female Common Goldeneye landed and twice peered into the cavity. It isn’t trying to eat the chicks, and it is late in the season for a goldeneye to start nesting. However, inexperienced female goldeneyes will begin looking for potential cavities the summer before breeding. Even though it is not an immediate threat, from the swallow’s point of view, the goldeneye had to be driven off.

Midst the activity, I managed perhaps my best shot of a swallow in flight.