Fledgeling

Today was bluebird-box monitoring day at my local park, with Bob of the Southern California Bluebird Club. One of our birdboxes has been hit hard by predators; of six eggs, two didn't hatch, two hatchlings vanished, and the penultimate one turned up dead on the ground. The last survivor, though, has been chirping loudly and eating lots of assorted invertebrates brought by its parents. I saw it peeking out of the box yesterday, and Bob decided to check on it:

Awwwwww

We then put the box back in its tree, and were watching the parent bluebirds flutter nearby when suddenly, out came the fledgeling!

It flew from branch to branch and then to other trees, followed by both parents.

Waterfowl portraits

Vaguely unnerving.

Chinese Swan Goose

Muscovy Duck

Snow Goose

Coot

Graylag Goose

Canada Goose

Lings

Of the duck- and gos- kind:

Big family of Mallards

Adolescent Egyptian Geese

Mother Wood Duck and her babies (one is behind her head)

More Mallards

The growth of a fuzzy duck

Some sort of domestic/wild Mallard hybrid, apparently the youngest of several like it in the park, photographed on weekly birdbox-inspecting trips:

April 7th

April 14th:

April 21:

April 28:

May 5:

May 19th (didn't see it the previous week):

Note the development of green iridescence on the bird's head in later images.

Bluebirds

I have been working with the Southern California Bluebird Club to investigate bird nestboxes at a couple of local parks (mostly bluebirds and the occasional Tree Swallows). We have had a few setbacks-- missing eggs, dead nestlings-- which were probably the work of Gopher Snakes, but overall it's been wonderful seeing the nests, eggs, and juveniles as well as adult bluebirds.

Miscellaneous pictures below the fold:

Baby green herons

They look like some kind of muppet velociraptor:

More of these adorable creatures below the fold:

Hummingbirds in their little nest

I have recently had the opportunity to observe an Anna's Hummingbird nest on an almost-daily basis for a bit over a week, watching the babies grow from tiny nestlings to flying fledgelings. (The image names contain timestamps.)