LEAVE YOUNG BIRDS BE!!


Please, do not hamper a young bird's life by picking it up, and taking it home with you. It is calling its parents to help them in locating it.
After fledgling from the nest, the parent birds will keep feeding it, and look out for it, until it will be able to look after itself.
And the reason you cannot see a parent is because of your own proxomity to the young bird. And while you are ebating if or not you should take the bird home, you keep the parent from giving it well needed nutrition in the form of a meal!


Photos

The photos on this blog are all taken by me. If there is any picture you might want to use for any other than personal use, please drop me a line to the email address shown in the sidebar on the right.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Juvenile Pied Wagtail High Herons

Above the village road to the bay, it is mostly very noisy; some of the Rooks nest and roost in a couple of large Scotch Pines which grow at the back of the garden of what used to be a small shop in the front room of a residential house. Ideal for that pint of milk, tin of dogfood or bag of flour, you'd forgotten, and didn't fancy a 20min. round trip in the rain without a roof over your head. So instead you'd come to Mrs. Donovan, which would take at least half the time. The garden, most of it lawn for the grandchildren, backs onto a tidal river, often a respite for the Mute Swans and other waterfowl.

The other day I sat watching a play with two star characters:
The Parent Pied Wagtail, Motacilla alba.
and
the Juvenile Pied Wagtail, Motacilla alba

It was quite comical to watch the Parent foraging with the Kid following eagerly for the next worm or Insect.
The Kid went of exploring on its own too, of course; one needs to find out what is behind that shrub, evelation, or tree.







In short, I spend a delightful time here at the side of the road, my eyes, camera and bins transfixed on the theatre set.

Next I rode on along the bay, looking longingly towards the pier. The breeze, as ever, was too strong to go and sit here out into the open, so I decided against it, and as I watched the Sea Asters, which finally were coming into bloom. I'd been waiting for these little little Wild Flowers, which last summer attracted so many Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies. I have only seen a few of these yet, which I do hope will be changing soon. To be honost, the ones I did see this summer, were all back in the garden. As I looked down, I spotted a Gull flying up, while I was thinking how odd it was to see a totally white one. Besides this strange plumage, I noticed that it would be too large for one too. I've seen big Great Black backed Gulls, Lesser Black backed or Heron Gulls, but this one beat all of those. Not that these were all white, far from it!
Following it, it landed in a across the bay. Heading back to the Church of Ireland, I spotted two Little Egrets in one tree, another Little Egret and Grey Heron in another, nearby.

The discovery of the latter was odd and yet it brought a smile to my face. The Grey Herons breed and rooast in a tree across the pier, and usually fish here too. The Egrets I had not seen in the bay since last year. I've seen Little Egrets in Bantry Bay, but not here in Dunmanus Bay. they have eluded me since. Whenever I would see the 'white Herons' here, one Grey Heron had been with them, everytime.
I am sorry, it was too far across for my dear Lumix. Besides the problem of distance, the other was white blobs in the tree. The sun was beaming right onto the birds, and even adjustments couldn't change this, without any visible details.

The botanical photos will be on Wildlife on Wheels. Not many either, because the break in the clouds was not very tolerable; wind and looming rain meant that I soon had to turn back again.

Yet it had been fun observing the Wagtails. I love juvenile Wagtails, their grey colour reminds me a bit of female Chaffinches, which would probably love such a large black bib too!

4 comments:

  1. lol, I know what you're talking about. The young jays and woodpeckers, etc. chase the parents around here waiting for food. Although I'm sure that at this point they're fully capable of getting their own, still I expect it's easier to wait for mum or dad to get it for them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yep. And as long as they keep begging, the parents will oblige. Until a certain moment when they will tell them that enough is enough.

    This little juvenile wasn't able to fly yet. Although my Sparrow juveniles, well capable of flight in normal conditions, now have the greatest trouble in 60mph winds.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i like pied wags - they make you smile.

    amazing how egrets have spread

    ReplyDelete
  4. making you smile, they do indeed. Pete. Actually, they make me laugh, most of the time.

    We've had Little Egrets here before, last year. But Egrets are scattered to almost everywhere on the world, that is right.

    I think the Poles are still to be explored by these birds. They're camouflaged, so that is one advantage already! So who knows, they might colonise there next?

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting Birding on Wheels; All comments left here, will be appreciated and I will answer as soon as possible to your comments.
Yoke.