A whole bunch of cute...

Our little office Killdeer chicks (from this post) hatched Monday—our first successful brood! Larry spotted the babies running in and out of the rocks and up and down the grassy banks in the early afternoon. I went home to get the camera, and by the time I returned a mowing crew had descended. Drama for the chicks! Within a few hours of hatching out of the safety of their eggs, a mighty iron beast was chasing them around Seapine's north green. What an introduction to the world!

Clover blossoms tower over the tiny Seapine Killdeer Chick #1.

I flagged down the lawnmower man, and pointed out the chicks to him. He promised to keep the lawnmower crew away from their nesting grounds. These fluffy little chicks will spend a good portion of their lives watching for and escaping from predators, they didn't need to spend their first few hours scurrying away from a lawnmower. Three of the four eggs in the nest hatched, and all three chicks are still doing well. I watched them running around outside my office this afternoon. Adorable!

Seapine Killdeer Chick #2

Seapine Killdeer Chick #3

Precocial chicks are up and running within hours of hatching. These chicks are just a few hours old.

After hatching out of their shells and waiting for their feathers to dry, precocial Killdeer chicks are ready to run around. They quickly start pecking at the ground, learning to look for insects and other food. Even though they can run around, they can't fly yet and are not completely self-sufficient. They still need their parents for protection. If you get too close, the parents will call out a warning, and the chicks will freeze and hunker down. When the parents feel all is well, they give the all clear with another call. I was seated on the ground fairly far away (these photos are heavily cropped), so the parents didn't perceive me as a threat, and I didn't get to see the behavior.

...balls of fluff with legs.

Killdeer couples can have 1-3 broods a season, so since their first brood was successful, there is a chance they will nest here again after this brood. Killdeer chicks will stay with their parents for about a month, then they fledge and move on. If we're lucky, we will get another go around with these cute birds!

Go Seapine wildlife!

Red-tailed Hawk's Nest on the Little Miami Trail

About a month or so ago, two Red-tailed Hawks were making a huge ruckus high up in a Sycamore tree on the trail, calling and crying out incessantly. Usually I only see hawks soaring overhead as I catch glimpses of them through the branches, so this was new behavior and I wondered what was up. Trying to find an opening in the branches to see what these birds were doing took a little time, but suddenly I saw a flash of pale red, other movement, and then a huge nest! Wow! No wonder they were squawking. They were building a home. Since then, I checked the nest every time I walked past, but I never saw any activity, so I assumed the couple must have abandoned it for other digs. But this weekend when I looked up, I saw something, and when I zoomed in...there was a head buried deep among the sticks!


Mama Red-tail was silent, nonmoving, and perfectly camouflaged in her nest. If I hadn't used my binocs, I never would have noticed her (and I wondered if she or papa had been sitting up there, hidden, for the past month). I watched for a while to see if papa would show up, but he didn't, so I continued to walk on up the trail, hoping to see a Scarlet Tanager or a few Indigo Buntings at their normal hangout. No tanagers were about, but I did see an Indigo Bunting, and even better--as I walked past the nest on my way back, I looked up and saw a baby! I couldn't believe it. A fluffy, white, large-eyed cutie was looking over the edge of the nest, no doubt waiting for mama or papa to bring it some food.

This gives you an idea of just how huge this Sycamore 

tree is. It towers over the other trees. Check out the size of 

the branches holding the nest. They are larger than most 

trees' trunks! The nest is huge, and this is just one part of it. 

Little baby get back in that nest! 

Mama will be home soon with dinner.

...and let's zoom in once more. Look at those precious eyes--

huge and round...and far-seeing, a fluffly, soft, downy eyas 

sitting atop a pile of sticks. Watching, listening, waiting.

I hung around for a while hoping mama or papa would return with some food, but neither did. Eventually, the baby started sinking back down in the nest, so I left. About 10 minutes into the return trip, I decided to turn back to see if either of the parents had flown in with a meal, but neither had, and baby must have nodded off to sleep, because once again the nest looked empty. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next week!

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher couple building a nest

What a gorgeous day today was. Sunshine and warmer temperatures were exactly what we needed! To celebrate, I picked up my mom (Joni) and Ena and headed over to the Little Miami Bike Trail for a bit of birding. The bike trail is a wonderful place to catch spring migrants. It follows the Little Miami River and is heavily wooded. It seems to be a magnet for the neotropical migrants, and you never know what might show up. 

Today we saw and heard numerous Northern Parulas, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, and tons of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Additionally we saw several Golden-crowned Kinglets, one Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Belted Kingfisher, plus all the usual suspects you would hope to find in a woodland, including Downy, Hairy, Red-Bellied, and Pileated Woodpeckers. As we were returning, I looked up and saw a male Blue-gray Gnatcatcher with a small bit of something in his bill fly onto a branch and then walk up to a nest!! The nest was gorgeous. It reminded me of a hummingbird's nest because it was entirely encased in lichens. It was a perfect little cup on a horizontal branch, just like it's described in the literature. We stopped and watched, and soon the female joined him and the couple worked together to build the nest.

This sweet couple worked diligently bringing 

little bits to the nest. They both worked equally.

While the female is off getting a piece of seed down, lichen, 

spider silk, or some other small item, the male is on the nest, 

moving around and adjusting his contribution. You can tell 

he is the male because of the black "eye brow" over his eyes.

The male continues to work in the nest.

The female is surveying the progress. She 

decides the nest needs a little more of something....

...so she comes back with a teeny, tiny bit of lichen in her bill.

She then settles down in the nest and carefully 

tacks the lichen to the outside decorations.

Here the male also places a small bit of lichen on the nest. 

The male and female totally ignored us down below, however, 

this shot looks like he's giving me that crazy bird eye they are 

all so good at giving. With never ending trips back and 

forth carrying small bits of nesting material, they were 

like a nest-building tag team!

Yesterday we had full nests...today they're empty!

In yesterday’s post the nests were huge and filled with mama and papa herons, but in today’s they are small and empty, left over from last year’s breeding season. When Matty got home from school, we ran over to Pine Hills park, a small park with varied habitat and a nice bike/hike/skate trail. Matty brought his skates and hit the trail, while I slipped off to the brushy meadow to look for nests. Meadows are always so sweet this time of year. They are still dormant so are easy to traverse, but in just weeks (or even days) they will start to come alive. It's a perfect time to map out old nests and get ready for the coming season. Some day I’d like to be able to spot a nest and know who nested in it by shape, construction material and location. I’ve got a beginning now!














In addition to nests, I was hoping to find the first Tree Swallows of the year. Last year, they arrived on March 25, but no luck yet this year. Notes from my field journal on that day last year:

Matty and I dropped Rick off after visiting the rookery and went to Pine Hills to see if any birds were around. It was 4:30, so we weren't expecting much. I'm glad we went because we ended up seeing the first Tree Swallows of spring! I heard their calls before I saw them and told Matty to "look up.....swallows!" We found them right away and followed their aerial show over the hill and out of the woods to the open field. There we watched them close up. Two came down from their play and rested on a nest box. The box was old and a weathered red...the swallow's iridescent blue feathers looked amazing against it.

This year, the old red nesting boxes have been replaced 

with new ones. Hopefully the swallows approve! This new 

nesting box standing in the grasses of the dormant field 

caught my eye. Like the meadow, it seems to be 

waiting for spring residents to arrive.

I did, however, see a different spring arrival. Where the scrub starts to weave into trees, I heard a slight scuffle and suddenly the profile of a Brown Thrasher came into view! I love these birds. They are so big and their profile is so recognizable. I also love that rufous color and their funky, big eyes! I pulled out the field journal and did a very fast 2-minute sketch, which although not as colorful or accurate, is fun to do!