Market Lake birds

Last Friday I slipped out to Market Lake for a few hours and saw 87 species of birds and got some good pictures of some of them.  Highlight were a Great Egret and several Black Terns.  I did not get good pictures of the Black terns, but at least you will be able to identify them.

On the way to Market Lake I stopped to see if the Burrowing owlets were out of the nest yet.  They were not, but the mother came over to check me out.

 

At Market Lake willets were on the edge of the ponds.

 

A cormorant was fishing in the deep water near the road.  It is funny that they often swim with most of their body under the water.

 

Western grebes have started nesting so the males and juvies are swimming around lonely.

 

Forester terns were all over the place - oops - I forgot to load a poor picture of the Black tern.

 

The Black-crowned Night-herons kept flying over the ponds and marshes.

 

The color-clashing Ruddy duck males were everywhere while their mates are probably nesting somewhere in the reeds.

 

And finally as I was leaving Market Lake a Great egret decided to say "hi" to me.  It was the first one of the season.

Just a few enjoyable hours spent in the wilds of Idaho.  Have a great week.

Osprey #1

I need to catch up on my blogs for this week. I have spent over six hours observing several osprey nests and their behavior. In the future I will write detailed article about ospreys, but for right now I will write about yesterdays observations of a nest I have been watching a photographing all year.

A week ago there were two chicks in the nest and now there is only one. It appears that three adults have joined forces to take care of this nest. A month ago I observed three adults building and maintaining the nest on the Henrys Fork of the Snake River near Ashton.

As I watched the nest, the female started calling and making a heck of a racket. Soon I saw two other osprey show up circling above the nest. They were beautiful to watch but then they too became very vocal.

Then I saw four cormorants flying up the river toward the nest. Even though cormorants are fish eaters, I have seen them eat ducklings and destroy nests of birds nesting near the water.

As the cormorants got closer, the two osprey circling the nest would take turns dive bombing them with one of the ospreys always staying between the cormorants and the nest. The female osprey stayed in the nest while the other two seemed to be protecting the nest from the cormorants.

The cormorants circled higher and higher with the osprey circling below them. Finally the four cormorants broke up with the osprey is hot pursuit of them.

What a show. I do not know if the cormorants posed any danger to the osprey nest, but it sure appeared to. After the cormorants left, the two osprey went back to searching for food on the Henrys Fork and I did not stay long enough to see if they brought food to the nest. I was late for work I had to get done.

There is just too much to observe and enjoy out there in the Wilds of Idaho and the rest of the world.