On reading the prompt for One Word Sunday: Speciality I had a couple of ideas for a post.
In the end I went with a specially designed nestbox and electronic flash that allowed me to document the nesting cycle of various bird species that use nestboxes. This meant that I could observe and record some interesting behaviour.
In this photo one of the adult Eurasian Blue Tits, I’d say that it’s the female, brings in some moss for the nest. The way the nest is being built shows that one adult has a preference for moss while the other has a preference for dry grass.
In this photo the male is feeding the female during incubation. Observation showed that the male always stood on the right side of the nest when feeding the female and the young when they were small.
So good David 🙂 I posted birds too….great minds 😀
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Thanks. I came up with a couple more ideas for the challenge after posting. Oystercatchers who develop specialised bills for opening shellfish and Nuthatches who walk down tree trunks to find insects other species miss when going up tree trunks.
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That’s great 🙂
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It’s seems to be happening a lot recently, coming up with better themes or ideas after I post.
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I do find that as well. I have never done a second post yet
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I have, very rarely, in the past. I think the problem for me at the moment is various things stopping me concentrating on a prompt/challenge. I’m coming up with a theme or idea and going with it without exploring it further.
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Time management is an issue for sure
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Just recently it has been worse than normal for me with various family issues divided between my family in the U.K. and the wife’s family in Ontario.
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Oh, marvellous images!
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Thanks Sue. Those two photos used to confound naturalists when I gave slide presentations. Especially the nest being built in two halves.
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OK!
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And I never noticed the nest construction until I started editing and captioning the slides.
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A lot to be said for post-production
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That and I was busy watching the birds trying to time my shots rather than paying attention to the construction.
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Brilliant! I’m glad she stuck to her preferences and gave herself a comfy mossy spot for incubation 🙂
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I’m sure I read somewhere that moss had certain helpful properties in a nest but can’t remember where I read it or what the properties were.
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Oh so sweet! It must be very challenging to capture this series.
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Thanks Amy. I have the complete series on file from the beginning of nest building to the last youngster leaving the nestbox. The last photo was taken two days after the last youngster left and shows dozens of bird fleas covering the sides of the nestbox.
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Er hangen ook camera’s in broedkasten hier in Amsterdam & over heel Holland …
Ik moet zoeken op internet en vragen hoe ik ze kan vinden en waar ik ze kan vinden: Géén idee!
Technisch gezien is het wel een hoogstandje van de aller hoogste orde. Is de achterkant van het nest van glas? Hoe kom je zo hoog? En … , altijd weer op het juiste & spannendste momenten . . . Dit is een wetenschap op universitair niveau … Ja, dacht ik wel … * Amsterdam, 15-3-2020, 18.00 uur . . .
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Sorry, this one ended up in the spam folder. The nestbox was built into the side of a garden shed. There was a glass back with a second, lightproof box behind the glass that a normal camera attached to. There was a small, modified, electronic flash built into the top of the box behind frosted glass.
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