The barn swallows are about to fledge.
Not long ago, this swallow was busy collecting mud, twigs, and grasses with which to build it's nest. The barn swallows that return to our apartment complex every year were collecting their nest-building materials from a mud puddle right outside of our apartment. One of the swallows chose to build her nest on top of the hallway light between two apartments. Ever since then, she and her babies have become celebrities, with people stopping by from all around to watch them grow.
This is what a lot of people were hoping to see. Even though you were facing the nest, it was obvious when one of the parents was returning with a beakful of bugs because suddenly the babies, who were hunched down below the edge of their nest, would do this. There are actually three babies in the nest, but for some reason that only a swallow knows, these parents chose not to feed the third baby. My camera is very slow, and this happens in a microsecond, so some of the pictures are really blurred. The big flapping blue blob near the center-right of the photograph is actually one of the parents returning with a bug or two.
I caught this shot of one of the parents perched on the edge of the nest, but he, or she, was only there for a second. As soon as the parent left, the babies would hunch back down in the nest again and you couldn't see them at all. When the parent first spotted a looky-loo, they'd give a very loud call, which I believe was an instruction to the babies to stay hidden.
Wing exercises began when the babies got older. All would be quiet for a while, then there would be a sudden flurry of stretching, flapping, and preening.
The babies were perching on the edge of the nest yesterday, so they'll fledge any time now. They may be gone as I speak.
I can't resist ending with this. A baby bird's open mouth looks like it's bigger than their entire head. When their parents return with food, they simply shove the unlucky bug down one of these wide open mouths. I wonder if the baby birds can taste anything that they're being fed, or if they couldn't care less what mom and dad drop down the chute?
Yesterday seemed to be one of those days when unusual birds show up at the park. Well, I guess the birds themselves aren't unusual, it's just rare to see them in West Hylebos Park. Yesterday, a belted-kingfisher showed up at Marlake. I've only seen one there about half a dozen times, so I always get excited when I spot one.
Brown-headed cowbirds are another one of those birds that I haven't seen in the park very often. They usually make an annual appearance, but rarely stay more than a day or two. That's fine with me. We don't really want to see this bird in the park. We like our songbirds! Cowbirds have a habit of laying their eggs in someone else's nest; then, because they're larger and need more food, the baby cowbirds push the baby songbirds out of the nest so that they can have all of the food to themselves. Cowbirds have figured out how to perpetuate their species without having to do any of the work of nest-building, egg-sitting, and food-gathering. Hmmmm, some of us have relatives like that.
Cedar waxwings have returned to Brooklake. This photo was taken at maximum zoom, so it's not very sharp, but you can still see how gorgeous these birds are. I think they're magnificent!
Recent visitors have spotted a pileated woodpecker working the trees in between the start of the loop trail and the deep sinks.
I watched a northern flicker busily searching for insects between the boards of the boardwalk before flying up into the trees. Look at this blue sky. It came and went in about five minutes flat, but it made me smile as long as it was there.
I spotted a pine siskin working the grass in the meadow. A siskin, two cowbirds, a spotted towhee, several robins, and a passel of dark-eyed juncos were all working the grass together.
I also spotted a willow flycatcher way up in the top of a tree. At first I couldn't figure out what it was because the light was terrible, but these birds have such a distinctive head-shape that I finially decided it was a flycatcher. The park sure is a good place to catch flies these days.
Like I said before, my camera isn't very fast, so I can't stop action, but there were so many insects zooming around that I couldn't help myself. I had to try to photograph these buggers. What I got instead of was photograph of the contrails they make in the air as they're zooming about. All of those serrated gray lines you see in this photo were made by flying insects. It might be a good idea to start wearing your insect repellant. I hate to spray that stuff on my skin, so I always wear long sleeves and long pants when I visit the park and only spray the bug spray around the brim of my hat. Besides, long pants and long sleeves will prevent you from getting stung by stinging nettles as well as being eaten alive by insects. It's a two-fer.
I only saw one land snail today. Unfortunately, it was crushed. So sad.
I also found this amazing web. One of my favorite books when I was young was a novel called "Green Mansions". One of the main characters was a girl, named Rima, who lived wild in the jungle. Rima made her clothing out of spider webs. When you look at this marvelous web, you can almost imagine how one could do that.
Wild berries are ripe and ready to eat. These are salmonberries and wild huckleberries. I ate at least two or three handfuls of these as I walked down the trail. Ummm, wild huckleberries. I love that short burst of sweet tart juice popping in my mouth. Yum! Be warned though, there are also berries growing in the park that are considered uneatable and others that are deadly poisonous. If you aren't absolutely sure what it is, please don't put it in your mouth.
A family with small children and a baby were caring for the baby on the platform near the old Sitka spruce. Not two feet away from them sat this absolutely gorgeous little frog. What a beauty. I asked the family if they'd seen the frog and none of them had, so I showed them where to look. They were very excited about it and said that they'd never have known it was there if I hadn't pointed it out to them. What a pretty little guy!
I found another little beauty over in the area that Adele and I call Jurassic Park. One of the skunk cabbage leaves was all curled around, creating a trumpet shape. This little green chorus frog was tucked down inside the mouth of the trumpet.
I don't know whether you can see this or not, but it's the very best shot I could get shooting down into the water with the light I had available at the time. In the center of this photo, directly above and to the left of the stem, is a tadpole that is now fully-developed into a tiny frog. This little fellow is just about ready to leave the lake and hop off into the wetland.
Other tadpoles have fully-developed legs now and the buds of arms soon to come. It won't take those arm buds long to develop into fully-functional arms, then the tail will be absorbed and this tadpole will also be ready to leave the lake.
Dana Buck says that at least two river otters have been hanging out at the lake all week, frolicking amid the reeds on the far side, disappearing, reappearing, and playfully chasing one-another around.
Last, I want to leave you with this bark. It's so beautiful, with it's myriad of pinks, grays, and whites, that it took my breath away.
Teri I. Lenfest
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