Exploring Kootenay Lake

I’ve watched a female robin tend to three hatchlings. Likely both parents fed these chicks. By yesterday, two chicks had fledged and only one remained in the nest. This last one stood up in the nest, waited a few hours, and finally took off. These shots were taken a short time before it fledged (t00k t0 the wing).

The robin chick has a spotted breast.

And has flecks on its wing feathers.

I have watched Tree Swallows for a long time and this is the first time that I have seen them collecting the feathers of other birds. Certainly, in some places the Tree Swallow’s nests are lined with feathers, but this depends on local availability. In some places grass is used to soften the rougher surface of the nest. So while feathers are sometimes used, there is a question as to why feathers are being brought in on the day the chicks fledged. This would seem to make them irrelevant.

The feathers were always from other species, were all about the same size, and either white or grey. A number were seen on this final day before fledging, but only one of each colour is shown.

Apparently, such feathers have also been used in what appears to be a Tree Swallow game of catch, but this was not seen.

This feather being brought to the nest cavity was white.

This grey feather seemed stuck to the bird’s bill. It went to the nest, and away again.

This is the second in a series of three postings on the Tree Swallow. It is concerned with parents feeding their chicks in the nest. The first posting was about flying, and the last posting will be about feathers.

I watched the Tree Swallow’s cavity nest while parents flew in and out for about a week, at which time the nestlings fledged. During the early part of the week, the chicks were in the nest and the parents had to climb in to deliver the food that they had caught on the wing. Chicks were fed insects by both parents every 10 or 20 minutes. Increasingly, toward the end, the chicks looked out of the nest and begged. This picture was early on.

Some of the trips into the nest cavity had the objective of removing the faecal sac, a wrapper containing the chick’s excrement. This keeps excrement out of the nest, and the parent delivers it far off before dropping it to prevent predators from finding the nest. 

During the final days in the nest cavity, the chick is full size, but looks larger than its parents because its feathers are fresh. The parent looks as though it is delivering a wasp.

And the wasp is stuffed into the chick’s mouth.

This looks to be a mayfly being delivered.

The mayfly is stuffed into the chick’s mouth. (Mayflies are common in all warm months.)

This is the first of what likely will be three postings about Tree Swallows. The first is just pictures of them flying. The second will be of it feeding its chicks. The third will be a mystery I have with it concerning its treatment of the feathers of other birds.

One might wonder why I would start with these shots of it flying. Well, the Tree Swallow is a rather fast flyer, and it just was not easy getting a number of close-up sharp in-air shots. So I show the few I have. They are offered without comment.

The Northern Flicker, our most common woodpecker, is frequent, but often it is seen at a distance. Today, it was near, so I snapped some shots.

First, an old shot showing what the topside looks like. This is a male feeding its two chicks.

Today’s female flicker is flying towards me. The orange under feathers is striking.

And when the flicker is flying away, the underside is spectacular.

This is a quirky posting. Most postings are about non-human nature. This is not.

I go for photographic walks with my daughter, Cynthia. We are often separated by anything from three metres to thirty metres as we observe nature.

Yesterday, we watched an osprey flying in circles over the lake hunting fish. It eventually caught one and brought it back our way. One picture I took I really liked. It was the osprey alighting on a distant tree branch, presumably to eat the tasty head of the fish (a common practice) before taking the rest to the nest. Alas, it promptly flew off again when it spotted another bird which, it feared, might try to steal the fish. But the picture of it landing on the tree branch was fine.

All this time, Cynthia was behind bushes somewhere not very far away doing her own observing.

I got home and showed her the osprey landing on the branch with its fish. Cynthia said, “I got one just like that.” I show both pictures. They were probably taken within a millisecond of each other. Minor differences reflect differences in our positions and cameras. Other than that, we both apparently thought: This might make a good shot. 

Cynthia’s picture of an osprey landing on a branch with its fish.

My picture of an osprey landing on the branch with its fish.

Many larger birds reuse their (chick hatching) nest over and over again in successive years. Indeed to combat parasites, the Bald Eagle will keep adding a layer atop their nest until it is so large that the wind brings down the tree. At the other extreme, hummingbirds build a new nest each year. Between these sizes, birds might build new or reuse an older nest. The robin builds new (see previous posting, blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=34611), and the Eastern Kingbird reuses.

Indeed, yesterday, I found a Eastern Kingbird incubating in the same nest which it had been feeding chicks in last year on July 16, (blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=33529).

I will have watch it for the pending chicks.

A Eastern Kingbird incubates eggs in the same nest it used last year.