Tag Archives: fledgling

Swift Fledgling

When the weather has been really hot at home, we have had windows open all over the house. I was out of the office having lunch with Nancy in the back of the house and I could hear a bird tweeting that sounded very close but didn’t really pay much attention to it. However, when I went back into my office after lunch, I saw a bird sitting on the window frame. At first, I stopped dead and called Nancy to have a look before it flew off if we startled it.

This was not a problem. The bird seemed totally uninterested in my presence. I am not a specialist on birds, but I think it was a swift and that it was recently fledged. Every once in a while, it would start tweeting which may well have been because the parents were nearby. Then it would go very quiet again. I took some photos and footage of it before returning to work. I figured it would fly off in due course.

This wasn’t the case. By the end of the workday, it was still sitting there. I did wonder at this point whether the open window meant parents couldn’t see where it was. Maybe staying there wasn’t going to be good for it and I would need to close the window at night. I decided to try moving it across the road to a fence post, so it was elevated but also visible. I got some gardening gloves to pick it up. At first, it seemed uninterested in moving but then suddenly it took off and flew across the road, over the fence and into the fields. Later in the evening, our neighbours saw it sitting on the spoke of the wheel of their vehicle. I guess it liked the warmth. However, we didn’t see it again. No idea whether it did okay or not.

Baby Red Wing Blackbird

Earlier in the year, I got to see the red winged blackbirds nesting in Juanita Bay Park and then defending their nest from threats real and perceived.  The humans were not causing them any problems but the herons were happy to much on a baby blackbird.  It wasn’t long before these babies had fledged and were out with their parents.  As with many baby birds, they were very demanding regarding food and not interested in getting it themselves.  I came across this parent and child along one of the boardwalks.  The chick looks like it should be able to take care of finding food but instead it just hung around making a ton of noise while the parent was busy trying to find something to keep it quiet!