The Birds

I have failed to journal the birds this summer and so I will share what has happened in just this last week in my neck of the woods.  You can click on the photos for a larger view.

The osprey are still hanging around teaching their offspring to fish and calling bravely when you pass too close to the nest in a boat.

As I said in an earlier post "our" osprey were only able to produce one little offspring.  The weather has been so wet that small plants are growing in among the sticks as you can see in the photo above.

My petunia pot has a wrens nest and even today they are just getting their feathers...looks like four.

The sandbar before the bridge still has the normal conglomeration of seagulls waiting for the setting sun so that they can go fishing.  They are actually not called a flock but a "colony."

There is an "island" offshore where the Cormorants and the Pelicans hang out, each on their own rock pile.  The white flags in the background are crab pots waiting to be pulled.

Sadly we lost one of our Yellow-billed Cuckoos this past week.  This is an example of their lovely rusty-colored feathers.  The skeleton was most of what remained and we can hear the mate calling and calling each day.  The call sounds like the whistle when one pumps one of those gallon sprayers that is used to spray an herbicide or pesticide!  It has got an echo sound and very hard to pinpoint exactly where the cuckoo may be sitting in a tree.  You can go to this link if you want to hear the sound...the first link is the one we hear in our woods,  supposed to be the female call or a male trying to attract a female ... sad.