This juvenile Snowy Egret had ventured away from his nest, learning how to get his own meals.
He had the stretch moves down, showing off his feet which aren’t quite the bright yellow of an adult.
But he was not successful while I was watching him. He got startled and flew back towards his nest.
I saw movement but it took my eyes a few minutes to spot this little songbird staring back at me.
The Merlin Bird ID app tells me this is a Common Yellowthroat, to my eye looking a whole lot like many other young or female warblers.
He was on the hunt, jumping from branch to branch, checking behind these waxy leaves for bugs or worms.
I got a quick full body peek while he contemplated his next move, which was to zoom into the heights of this tree.
The two Black-crowned Night-heron nests I spotted at the beginning of May apparently failed as they disappeared shortly thereafter. There must have been at least one other nest in that little island as I almost literally bumped into this juvenile on Thursday standing on the nearby boardwalk.
He practiced rousing…
… and showed me his beautiful wings.
A little unsure of himself, he hopped along before taking off back to the island.
Further down the path I had a view of him perched on a dead branch hanging over the water.
In mid February I posed a question “Will These Sticks Make a Nest?” with doubts about the whole thing staying put.
This is one of my images from that post showing the scrawny nest and poor housing support.
I’ve been back a couple times since then and seen the parents had built the nest up quite a bit and two chicks had hatched.
I finally got some decent images this week.
There was just the one chick. Most of the other GBH chicks in nearby nests have fledged. Sometimes the young will return to the nest even after they are feeding themselves, probably for familiarity.
If this one hasn’t flown he will soon as the parents stop bringing food at some point and he’ll have no choice.
Not far from where I saw Juvenile Little Blue Heron Hunting this fellow was feeding more out in the open and may even be the same bird.
He was catching little creepy-crawly things in the shallow water, swallowing before he lifted his head.
Way up in a pine tree this fuzzy Barred Owl Owlet was drying off after a downpour.
One of his parents was over by the bamboo pond; I did not spot the other, but don’t doubt it was nearby.
Based on previous year’s experience we’ll soon be seeing junior closer to the pond to get hunting lessons.
A juvenile Little Blue Heron poked along the edge of a pond in between some Cypress knees looking for a meal.
He quickly swallowed a couple of small finds.
After a bit he flew up onto a bridge railing and showed off his mottled blue coloration. Sometime in their second year the Little Blues become fully blue.
His awkwardness gave the Carolina Wren away as a young ‘un.
His feet seemed a bit big for his body but boy could he sing like a seasoned pro.
Oops, leaned a bit too far.
Alligator ramps around the pond provide a fairly safe and dry spot for the Wood Duck ducklings to dry off and preen.
The Yellow-bellied Slider seemed oblivious to their occupation of his sunny spot.
Mama Wood Duck stayed in the water, patrolling for safety. Other times I have observed this there has been a Wood Duck drake nearby, also on alert, but I did not see one this time.
This family was up against the edge of the pond and I didn’t see them until mom had them underway.
I was hoping they would swim into a patch of sunshine.
They preferred a path through the shade.
That’s far enough!
