Thanks Dave. Cool.
Pete
On 7/19/2017 10:56 PM, Dave Nutter wrote:
> Remember that hummingbird nest I mentioned awhile back? I checked it
> yesterday afternoon, and the 2 nestlings looked like actual birds. They were
> well past the lizard stage with wrinkly round chameleon eyes and serrated
> iguana ridges where pinfeathers were forming. They had grown real hummingbird
> beaks. One youngster was nicely contoured with a green tint above and a
> gray-speckled throat. The other looked a bit scruffier. It had all the
> feathers but they were not as open or lying as neatly, and they were more
> buff-tipped above. I could still see a bit of sheath on the outermost primary
> of that one, but the wings were generally hidden from view due to the upward
> viewing angle and the birds' position in the nest. Actually the nestlings
> were more on than in the nest for the past several days, and yesterday I
> could see a black-clawed pink toe gripping the rim.
>
> Standing side by side, they took turns exercising their wings behind the
> other's back. "Scruffy" was curious, probing the nest with its bill, tasting
> nearby leaves (including where they had defecated), and poking its sibling,
> not in a mean way, but not random either. "Svelte" looked dignified, and
> stayed still more, maybe having already done that exploration. Both tracked a
> nearby flying insect with their bills. And when mama alit on the rim they
> stretched up, and opened their rather dangerous bills to receive regurgitant
> pumped deep inside them through an even more dangerous bill.
>
> I checked again this morning about 5:45 between taxi calls, but the leaves
> were so droopy I couldn't see the nest in the sole sometimes-possible line of
> sight. (On Monday I had also looked from the taxi just before a storm. Those
> kids had quite a ride with the branch going up & down, but one of the leaves
> acted as a wind screen for them.) I checked again today from the taxi at
> 11:30am and finally got a view. The rim of the nest was an unbroken line,
> although the youngsters haven't been able to hide inside the cup for days. I
> got out for a closer look to double check. They were gone off into the wide
> world.
>
> A bit more about this nest. It's on one of several branches drooping down
> toward Fall Creek. It's not close enough to the water to be in danger from
> flooding, but there are other risks. It's next to a popular fishing spot.
> There's line tangled in an adjacent branch, and one time I arrived to find an
> angler trying to yank free a line and hook caught in a different adjacent
> branch, but shaking everything nearby. I mentioned to the angler that there
> was a bird nest in there, and the person packed up and left, perhaps a bit
> embarrassed at catching the tree instead of a fish. Meanwhile, I moved to the
> one line of sight where I could view the nest, and it still had babies.
> Perhaps that event was just another storm to them. Another time when I saw
> someone move along the bank right next to the nest to fish, I pointed out the
> nest and asked that they be extra careful, and that person obligingly moved a
> bit farther away. It's true that the mama chose to nest there despite people
> along the path and people fishing and canoeing, so the bird was clearly
> somewhat tolerant of humans, but if it was going to get disturbed I didn't
> want it to be birders' fault. The mama definitely noticed me when I was
> close, so I was only close for limited periods and late in the nesting.
>
> Anyway, I apologize for not having shared the nest's location, and for being
> vague to people on the path who asked what I was looking at. I feared that a
> constant stream of birders trying to see and photograph it might be too much.
> I made one exception. Melissa Groo, whom you all know as a wonderful
> photographer, asked if she could discreetly try her hand, and I thought it
> would be good to have high quality documentation, knowing that she would be
> very careful. She made several visits despite a busy schedule and the fact
> that the nest was frustratingly hard to view among the leaves. I also
> documented the progress of the nesting, and my photography got better during
> that six weeks. I hope to put together a more complete and illustrated story
> which might be worthy of an article in the Cayuga Bird Club newsletter.
>
> --Dave Nutter
> --
>
> Cayugabirds-L List Info:
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
>
> ARCHIVES:
> 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
> 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds
> 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html
>
> Please submit your observations to eBird:
> http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
>
> --
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
>
