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"Little" Things In Life


Corners

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Having lived in our current home for six years, since the first summer, I noticed a pair (male/female) of Killdeer birds who laid two very minute eggs. Each year these two birds return to the same nest and remain their until two baby killdeer chicks are hatched. I was amazed at how quickly, once they had broken through their egg shell, they matured. These pictures are of the two that just hatched on the 18th. The first one came into this World at about 8 A.M.

 

I waited until it was out of its shell and then got on my Harley and rode to coffee. Was gone for two hours.

 

When I came back I walked over to the nest and was surprised to see that the second chick had hatched probably shortly after I left.

 

You can see the second chick still has "wet feathers" on it. The first one hatched had already produced enough new feathers and was moving his head around plus crawling.

 

The second chick immediately crawled over to it's brother. When the oldest one moved, the second one immediately followed him.

 

I know this has nothing to do with detailing. However, some times it's the small things in life we absolutely overlook that is so amazing.

 

I just came in from checking on them. They have already left their nest with their parents. These birds are precocial which means they are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching.

 

The parent birds will be back next year and perhaps then I can get better photographs with my professional camera. The parents absolutely do not like anybody or anything to approach their eggs or chicks, once hatched. Both Male and Female, if they feel a threat to their eggs or hatched chicks, let out a loud noise, run a few feet and then lay down, flapping their wings as if they are wounded. That's how they attempt to keep other birds/animals/humans away from their nest. They will sacrifice themselves in order to protect their young.

 

We also have other various types of birds that return each year to their regular nests.

 

Then of course I live directly in the "flight path" of Geese and Ducks. Wife's car is always in the garage and if I fail to park my truck in the shop - well the next morning it's "bird bomb" cleaning time with a 2 bucket wash.

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Very cool. I love nature stuff like this.

 

We follow the families of sand hill cranes here. Mate for life and are very attentive parents to their young. VERY curious about humans too. You can walk with 5 ft of them without spooking them.

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That's amazing and so cool you were able to catch them in their infant state. Pretty neat to see how parent animals sometimes guard and fend for their young, this is no exception.

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My wife will go nuts when she sees those pictures. She loves them. We always called them "hurry up birds" because of how they go slow to eat, then run really fast to the next spot. Nice pics. :thumbsup:

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VERY cool... Thanks for posting that, and giving us all a little education to boot. Nature really is amazing. I love how perfectly camouflaged they are to their environment.

 

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

I have a 210' asphalt driveway. On one side I have river rock the full length of it. This is where the two birds always come back to the same nest. When the eggs are laid, you really can't see them until you see one or the other of the parent birds sitting on the eggs.

 

Even after they have hatched, it's still pretty hard to see them unless you know where they are. As you can see with this black and white photograph, as I said, it's really hard to see them.

 

I didn't want to write an extremely long thread about them but there are times when some other bird or small animal will eat one or both eggs. I haven't timed it :lol: but it doesn't take very long before the female again will lay two more eggs.

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Very cool. I love nature stuff like this.

 

We follow the families of sand hill cranes here. Mate for life and are very attentive parents to their young. VERY curious about humans too. You can walk with 5 ft of them without spooking them.

 

I use to love to hunt just about anything but one day I decided it was relaxing to start hunting with a camera.

 

We don't have the cranes where I live but I've driven to areas and spent a few days taking photographs of them.

 

Ducks too mate for life. We use to have a pair of red tailed hawks. They were always flying together. Then one day I only seen the male. He stuck around for about a week and then that's the last I seen of him.

 

Two years ago a baby robin fell out of its nest. I picked it up and placed it back. Not sure if it was due to a human smell I left on it but the parents totally ignored it until it died.

 

Yea, there are a lot of little things in life we really don't stop and take the time to enjoy. During the summer months when I take off for a week or so on my Harley, I'm always looking for some type of animal to take photo's of. Although it's kind of hard to try and sneak up on anything with twin cams on a Harley engine that is also running "almost" straight pipes. :lol:

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That's amazing and so cool you were able to catch them in their infant state. Pretty neat to see how parent animals sometimes guard and fend for their young, this is no exception.

 

Tks! Once their born, and as I said in my original Thread, these little critters are born and in a day or so are capable of leaving the nest and following their parents - walking of course until they can flap dem wings a little faster. I have to watch them very close or their gone before I can photograph them.

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My wife will go nuts when she sees those pictures. She loves them. We always called them "hurry up birds" because of how they go slow to eat, then run really fast to the next spot. Nice pics. :thumbsup:

 

Glad to hear you wife will like them. I've been taking wildlife photo's for years and when I show my wife what I think is something pretty cool, all I get is "yea, that's nice." But one day when I snapped a "quick" picture of her in the shower, she didn't say "yea, that's nice," she said *&%$(* &^#@ :mad:

 

Yea those birds can slowly put the chow away but I don't think there is anybody that could keep up with them in a foot race. When you approach their nest, they will run like heck for a few feet and then either laying on their stomach or back, fluff out their wing feathers, acting like they are hurt in an attempt to draw any danger away from the eggs or chicks.

 

I tried that with my wife once but she still whacked me. :lol::help:

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Thanks for sharing!

 

Growing up 30 years ago we had them in my parent's yard and it was always fun watching the parents do their wounded distraction routine to lure the dogs and cats away from their nests.

 

They are also fun to watch the babies with their little spindly legs madly spinning, amazing to me to see their balance with being top heavy.

 

Very cute pics!

 

:cheers:

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That is neat that you had the opportunity to watch that. My wife was one of only a couple of people where I live that was able to hand feed baby birds from the day they hatched out of the egg. There is a real science to it. Humidity, temperature, etc. all a has to be exact otherwise the bird will die. And mother nature does this all fairly easily. Food temp has to be exact, and for the first two days after they hatch they have to be fed every half hour around the clock for two days. I would just stear clear while she was doing this. I really don't know how she managed, but she did. There is really a whole lot more that goes into it. These are just some of the things that stood out for me. And it is amazing how fast they grow. Neighbors and there kids where always over watching when the wife had a clutch of eggs to take care of. Thanks for sharing those pics.

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Thanks for sharing!

 

Growing up 30 years ago we had them in my parent's yard and it was always fun watching the parents do their wounded distraction routine to lure the dogs and cats away from their nests.

 

They are also fun to watch the babies with their little spindly legs madly spinning, amazing to me to see their balance with being top heavy.

 

Very cute pics!

 

:cheers:

 

Yea Dave, they are a kick in the behind to watch - "if" - one can view them before they leave with their parents. The pictures of the two I posted are long gone. Didn't even leave a note say thanks for the use of my land. :lolsmack:

 

That wounded method the parent birds use. If they feel that's not going to work, I've had both of them come running straight towards me in an attempt to get me away from their nest.

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Very cool indeed.

 

My uncle cut a hole in the top of a wooden owl house he built and has a camera mounted there with signal running back to his house. Mama Barn Owl laid seven eggs and he chronicled the whole event. I'll post up some pics to add to this thread when I get to sti still for a minute.

 

- Darryl

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Very cool indeed.

 

My uncle cut a hole in the top of a wooden owl house he built and has a camera mounted there with signal running back to his house. Mama Barn Owl laid seven eggs and he chronicled the whole event. I'll post up some pics to add to this thread when I get to sti still for a minute.

 

- Darryl

 

Now that is super neat. Always wanted to set up something like that out in the woods in an attempt to get pic's of deer or "something."

 

I love all wildlife "except" gophers. Those little lawn wrecking critters. I have a large field next to my property that belongs to the County. I keep 'their' grass and weeds cut back. In doing that, the lawn wreckers decided to move into the field.

 

Now, each morning I sit at the dinning room table having a cup of coffee. The French doors are opened and my trusty 22 rifle is right next to me. When I see a head or body pop up - BLAM - one less lawn eater. :D

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