Great males….

 Another ten hour day in the field….started out by finding our 28th new nest this year. Oy vey. Then I watched a bunch of hatching and a bunch of feedings, and was able to count some little heads. Quite a few three chick nests! But the most amazing part today was the males…..

At one of my early stops the female was feeding chicks and I was struggling to count them, since they pop up here and there, and you keep waiting for them all to be up at the same time to be sure. So I am standing outside in a park, insanely talking out loud to myself….” There is one under her tail, one in front of her….and she is feeding something I can’t see.” Dad was watching. When mom seemed to stop, he picked up the rest of the fish and started feeding a different chick…. So he was feeding, walking around the nest with a big bite in his beak, like “anyone want more?” So sweet. He was just as involved with the feeding of his three offspring as she was. Not all males are like that….but it’s awesome when I get to see it.

Then I got to one nest and the female was in incubating posture and the male was feeding her as she sat. She got up, and he kept feeding her ( it was far away and the heatwaves were bad but I got some crummy photos…one is photo below ) and then she started passing the bites on to an unseen wee one. Sigh.

Some days I am tired and stressed, and then I have a day like this….and I walk away thinking, I am the luckiest person on earth to get to see this stuff, and to understand what I am seeing. People are running past me, biking past me and missing all these little miracles that are going on. Right there…..for free….for those who are aware.…and for those who invest their time and patience. I hope I am able to provide some insights and inspiration so people will be more aware of the awesome beauty of this species, and the natural world in general.