A juvenile Bluebird landed between the pickets on an old metal fence at Magnolia Cemetery.
A wider view showing off the corner element of the fence.
Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC
August 7, 2020
Extra Fence Ornamentation
Tag Archives: Juvenile Bird
Juvenile Little Blue Heron
Some of this year’s juvenile Little Blue Herons are still hanging around the swamp, now on their own. The parents have moved on, no longer providing meals.
I was not expecting him to fly and he almost flew out of my frame. I liked the fall-ish background so kept the image even without much leading space in front of the bird.
He didn’t go very far and when I rounded a corner on the trail he was in front of me again.
Juvenile Little Blue Heron
A juvenile Little Blue Heron struck a pose in a dead tree snag just off the pond.
He’s mottled, rather like the sky behind him. Little Blues turn from solid white to blue gradually between one and two years old.
August 4, 2020
Did You See a Sign?
Surely they didn’t mean us!
A pair of juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Herons that flushed out of a tree when I passed by landed on a dock that sits on the Ashley River.
The river is tidal and the tide was in so there would be no river bank fishing for this duo for several hours.
Gallinule Family
Gallinules announce their presence vocally so I knew there were some nearby when I walked the dike around the old rice field pond at Magnolia a couple weeks ago.
I finally spotted some…one adult, two older juveniles and a few chicks. There are at least three chicks under the larger birds, and two more to the left in the reeds.
Interestingly the young chicks have the orange beak of a mature adult, but as they get older they turn all grey. Of course with six or more birds they are never all looking the same way at once.
The banks of the dike are overgrown most of the way around limiting view into the water.
August 4, 2020
Juvenile Little Blue Heron Flight School
The last few groups of this year’s juvenile Little Blue Heron are learning to fly.
It was a dull day and the adult Little Blue doesn’t show up that well, but it was fun to watch.
The little fellow wasn’t that interested. Maybe he knows this is the end of “food delivery by mama”.
After unsuccessfully trying to lure the youngster upward, finally the adult tried pushing.
Junior flew out onto a nearby branch. Now what do I do?
A juvenile from another nest shows how it is done.
Juvenile Snowy Egret
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.
Juvenile Common Yellowthroat
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.
Juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron On Boardwalk
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.
Will These Sticks Make a Nest? Yes!
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.
