Least Bittern Nest

 I had the pleasure of exploring Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge by airboat earlier this summer. Our goal was to find a few Least Bittern nests and see what wetland wildlife was active. These interesting little birds stalk wetlands and marshes and have a very cool method of camouflaging themselves among the reeds. They can point their long beaks skyward while rotating their eyes to see what is in front of them. The coloration of the mature birds blends extremely well with aquatic plants and they can be very hard to see. Least Bitterns are an amazing example of adaptation to an environment.

I was out with a biologist and he was doing a bird count to see what species and how many were in the wetland. This lends a sense of scale for how small the nests are. He picked up a baby to examine it briefly.



We found three nests that morning. The biologist said that often the adult birds will be aggressive in defending the nests and will refuse to move. This was later in the season and the adults flew away as soon as we approached.



This is a pretty poor photo of an adult Least Bittern, but it is all I have and was taken while buzzing through the reeds at 20 miles per hour. This is the only adult bird I was able to photograph that day. They were very skittish.



I only include this photo to show what an adult bird looks like, since the photo itself is pretty embarrassing.

D.

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Baby Hawks Update

I just wanted to share an update on the baby hawks from a previous post. These little things grow fast. I first photographed this family on May 20, 2010. The "before" photo is from that first day, the "after" photo is only 12 days later on June 1, 2010. And the biggest one had already left the nest! I went back two days later to see what sort of development had taken place and only one young bird remained. I think this was the runt of the nest because it was constantly being pushed down and food taken by the two other siblings. I feel I was very lucky because I actually got to see this one leave the nest and take flight.



The bird looked a little unsteady and hopped/flew from branch to branch to a clear spot before taking off.


























...pause for silhouette...



Take a breath, gather some nerve...and gone. So long little hawks!

I've been back a couple more times, but haven't seen the family since. It was a very rewarding experience just to watch and enjoy. I learned quite a bit about their habits, and I am in awe at just how fast they matured. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that this nest gets used in the future!


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