Saw The Two Newest Monk Parrots Being Fed

The monk parrots at White Rock make a lot of noise but in a way that's good. You know they are in the area. I pulled up on the parking lot at Winfrey Point this morning looking for the red shouldered hawk that hangs out there but heard, then saw the little green birds that look so much like the ones that were sold in the five and dime stores as pets. There are, however, a bit larger and there are some noticeable differences. However, seeing them in action is always a delight.

You might try enlarging them after you click them on for the default enlarging. At 100 percent, they are clearly cute to see.

The chick is on the left. Mom would drive the other bird away when she came back.

Here, she feed from her beak to the chicks beak.

There are two chicks and mom and dad.

It started out with shooting a couple on the sidewalk, then they flew off to the other side of Winfrey, then to the gang lights at the ball diamonds. Then, I noticed in the big tree at the edge of the circular drive that going around the side and front of Winfrey, two parrots sitting on a dead branch of the tree canopy. It wasn't long before I figured out that these two were fledglings and then came mom and dad to feed them. Then, it happened. I got to see mom feed the baby. To me, that was a rare shot. After a number of years trying to get a really good shot of them, I was able to get a couple of good shots of the feeding.

Never To Old To Learn

Dad puts himself in between himself and his chicks as mom escorts them to safety.

Snake paces back and forth along shoreline for a reason.

Dad Duck Watches Out For Snake

While I have always loved wildlife and being outdoors, looking back now, the last twenty years of my life have been a new learning experience with a triptych of cameras by my side. In the course of events during that twenty years, going to zoos has been fun, but this isn't about going to zoos. It's that red tail hawk that you first notice by its shadow that it cast on the ground as you walk a trail. It's about seeing fluffy little owl chicks poking their heads out of a hollow of  a tree hole, seeing this world for the first time. Discovering a couple of dozen of Rocky Mountain long horn sheep living less than the number of fingers on one hand from me turned out to be a WOW experience. Or finding not one but two houses where a pair of burros roam a side yard. Kestrel hawks, great horned owls, ospreys, bald eagles, are now spotted on a regular basis as I have learned about their habits and how they go about their days as I take time out of mine to watch such majestic beauty for the majority of the days in a year.

But the most amazing thing that I have always heard about, but never had  observed in detail has been the colorful and sometime funny, wood duck family. This season, I have seen no less than ten pairs, observed how the male and female are seldom seen alone but when you do, its because the males are keeping watch over the females and their chicks.

Yesterday and the day before all the pieces of the puzzle came together and my eye spotted unusual places where wood ducks go. Never observed  in those places observations became answers. For example, the male was seen coming out of the water and flying with the female up into two separate trees. Animals, especially birds, have diversion patterns that they fly when going to their nest. They never go direct to the nest with people around. But why did the female go here and the male flew there?The answer was the nest tree up the side of a old oak  more on the short side of 20 feet rather than the short side of 15feet. That lead the following day to more answer. The female watched as her 12 chicks jumped out of their nest to the ground below and collected around mom on the ground as dad called to the chicks from the branch of the tree where he had been seen the day before flying up into the different tree than the female.

But the big event was yesterday as I observed a big water snake swimming along the shore where I had seen it and another in areas. I have never seen them at that location before. They had been hanging out at the edge of the lake and then a mallard built a nest and was sitting on the nest. She later disappeared. after about three days on her nest, as did the snakes. The sighting of the snake swimming back and forth along the shoreline just a couple of feet offshore gave way to my sighting of the male wood duck on a dock. After a while when he had determined that all was well, he flew from the dock to where the shake had been seen earlier. Shortly after that, mom and her 12 chicks headed across the channel toward the marina  with dad in patrol of the shore back and forth between where the snake had been seen an where the chicks were following closely behind mom. It was nature at its best right here in the middle of 7.5 million people.

Baby Owls Make Debute

A month ago when I first posted images of momma owl landing on the tree hole and looking in as if there were chicks there instead of eggs, I had a hunch that the eggs had already hatched. The question remained: how many? Well, it appears that there are three--were three- as only one remains in the nest. And, with momma bringing food, having the nest to yourself, there is no urgency now to get out. However, today, I did see signs that the little owl has the curiousness to come out sooner than later.

The other two nest mates were hanging out high in the canopy. Once out, they will not go back into the trees nest. Dad was up above the little patch of forest circulating in wide patterns as momma was bringing food for the one in the nest and the other two that are out in the canopy. That is the only way you are going to locate the little ones is to watch where momma takes the food. The leafing of the canopy makes it hard to see the little fellows.

The area is dark and the sky was mostly cloudy as moisture streams in from the Gulf once again. It was humid and into the 80s today. Had the sun been out full time, I would have been in under the AC. I had reset my ISO to make amends for the da.rkness but I did get grainy images doing that. Not the best by any means. In fact, it makes me rather disturbed because I know better about how to correct the problem. The problem was more that momma would take flight and then swoosh in to feed the babies. Adjusting was just not my  speed today. Sorry about that. The blog does suffer  at times with less that perfect images. Two things: it keeps the images from being stolen and also, I can use an image on the blog where I could not use it as stock. Sorry about that, too. But, as I said a few post back: I'm not perfect.I don't want to be perfect. I will never be perfect and most all, I have come to dislike those that think the world should be totally perfect. For them, it is a pure indication that they already have a defect! Ain't poetic justice great?


Here are the images good or bad. The little owl is just plain cute either way.

Mom feeding chick below her on left of stick by mom's head.

Mom on right. Chick on Left

Mom is mom but chick is looking out of the hole and looking at the ground below.

Chicks usually fly upward on leaving the nest area.