June 23, 2006
Little Bittern babies
It's that time of year again, the lull between spring and autumn migration when one turns one's attention to flowers, insects and baby birds - and they don't come much cuter than these Little Bitterns (Blongios nain)! Thanks to Thierry Fournet for showing me these great birds at the leisure base in St Quentin-en-Yvelines. There were in fact two nest sites in close proximity. The older of the two had apparently produced 6 young, though only 3 were visible to us at any time.
Adopting a classic bittern posture:
These chicks are likely to be independent soon, and this one was seen wing-stretching and attempting to catch damselflies at the water's edge.
In the second nest, four downy chicks were just about visible, but being somewhat more vulnerable tended to lurk deep in the undergrowth.
Parental visits were much more frequent to this nest, and surprisingly the male seemed to spend much more time feeding the young than the female.
Other birds of note included Turtle Dove (Tourterelle des bois), Black Tern (Guifette noire) and Common Tern (Sterne pierregarin). We were also lucky enough to have great views of a Lesser Purple Emperor, my first, as it fed on a dead fish(!). The irridescent purple sheen on the upperwings was striking, though unfortunately it didn't perform for the camera.
I also saw my first of year Comma
and Black-tailed Skimmer (both digibinned).
Certainly beats a Friday afternoon in the office!
Posted by rjhall at June 23, 2006 11:51 PM