This post goes for #AmazingNature Thematic Challenge. Weekly theme was: BIRD NESTS.
I have a pleasure to mention that @bucipuci chose the topic inspired by our little conversation during the previous round. "Prepare ladders or waterproof shoes", were his parting words whden he sent us to carry out this quest. Well, I didn't need rubber boots, but I really needed a telephoto lens. A stepladder would also be very handy :)
sparrows
This is the 1st nest (actually, three nests) I discovered on my usual way to the office: the nests belong to sparrows, they are located at the height of 4 meters above the street and are absolutely unreachable without a step-ladder. But they are not invisible - sparrows de-mask themselves with a lot of birds language / talking... I would love to take a pic of a sparrow slipping into the nest (the "entrance" was located in the 'E' letter), but I missed the moment and preferred not to spend the next 15 or 30 minutes standing there with telephoto, I had some other business with my babygirl. But I enjoyed my find, the whole sparrow encounter, very much!
The next two cases I want to present you, are two nests - better even say: hatchings, right?-- my baby and I discovered on the same day, walking around the pond in the Aviatorov park.
clots
Clots is the type of ducks that is the most arrogant, impudent ducks in our location, they always chase everyone else! I myself just a few days ago witnessed how this duck drove the crested grebe duck and kicked it off from a good convenient spot for buiding a nest, and took this place for itself (there was a lot of reeds nearby...)
Лысухи - самые наглые, дерзкие утки в нашем водоеме, они гоняют всех остальных! Я сам был свидетелем несколько дней назад, как эта утка прогнала "с удобного места" утку чомгу, и заняла это место, удобное для постройки гнезда. (Поблизости было много тростника).
The clot is collecting reeds for creating a nest.
This is how the final "product" looks like.
This nest was built from reeds and willow branches. It is located close to the bank, but is very well covered by neighbouring tree branches - when soon the tree will be decorated with green leaves, this nest will be hard to notice if you dont know about it. My daughter and I fed the duck with wheat bread (see a slice of bread floating on the water in the lower right corner of the photo?) The duck preferred to sit on the nest without interruption, or rather, it went about its business for 15 seconds, and I saw that the nest contains three large pale bluish -green eggs, but due to interfering branches, I did not have time to photograph the eggs. You will have to take my word for it that the duck is not sitting in an empty nest :)
Вот такое гнездо было построено из тростника и веток ивы. Оно находится недалеко от берега, но очень хорошо укрыто ветвями деревьев - когда дерево будет украшено зелеными листьями, это гнездо будет невозможно заметить. Мы с дочкой подкормили утку пшеничным хлебом (видите плавающий на воде ломтик хлеба в правом нижнем углу фотографии?) Утка предпочла сидеть на гнезде не прерываясь, точнее, она отходила по своим делам на 15 секунд, и я увидел что гнездо содержит три больших бледных голубовато-зеленых яйца, но из-за мешающих веток, я не успел сфотографировать яйца. Вам придется поверить мне на слово, что утка сидит не в пустом гнезде :)
This is how this place looks from afar - the willow trunk tilted into the water allows you to get close to the nest, but you won't touch it with your hands if you can't walk on the water :) that's why the duck sits so calmly, complacently without worrying about our close presence. My girl loves to feed the birds! We specially brought wheat bread and a kilogram of wheat groats to the park.
Так это место выглядит издалека - наклоненный в воду ствол ивы позволяет приблизиться к гнезду близко, но руками не потрогаешь, если ты не умеешь ходить по воде :) поэтому утка сидит так спокойно, самодовольно не беспокоясь нашего близкого присутствия. Моя девочка обожает кормить птиц! Мы специально принесли в парк пшеничный хлеб и килограмм пшеничной крупы.
Can you see the nest on this photo, from 3-4 metres distance? (Here I was standing on the shore, while making the capture).
There was a nice post recently in this community, where you can see what the Clot's hatched chicks look like. // Недавно был хороший пост в сообщество, в котором вы можете увидеть, как выглядят вылупившиеся птенцы лысухи.
Clot young chicks, photo by @katiefreespirit | img src
a good spot
In fact, my daughter and I went to the park, knowing in advance where to look for duck nests - ducks love to use an old, proven place. For three years in a row, a pair of Crested Grebe have been building a nest at the very same spot, and this time it was no exception. (In 2019, I found this spot for the first time; then there were two nests of both coots and grebes, at a distance of 2 meters from each other). It's just that this place, in the reeds, is very profitable, convenient ... and when I was taking this photo, I witnessed a funny scene from the secret birding life: one coot drove two grebes away from the place that it wanted to stake out for itself.
На самом деле мы с дочкой пошли в парк, зная заранее, где искать утиные гнезда - утки любят использовать старое, проверенное место. Вот уже три года подряд чомги строят гнездо на том же самом месте, и этот раз не стал исключением. В 2019 году я в первый раз нашел это место. Тогда здесь расположились гнезда лысухи и чомги, на расстоянии 2 метров друг от друга. Просто это место, в тростниках, очень выгодное, удобное... и когда я делал эту фотографию, я стал свидетелем забавной сцены из птичьей жизни: лысуха взашей прогнала двух чомг от места, которое хотела застолбить для себя.
This was shot on May, 3.
Defending the area...
Win!
By the way: look at the legs. Their size... simply stunning, and of course, amazing! isnt it?..
part 3 :. crested grebe
There were two spots, actually (and as I mentioned, there were two nests here in the previous years).
So, in a week -- I came back here again on May, 10 - I witnessed Grebes already created the nest and made a hatching.
The proud mummy was caring of four nice eggs, and her partner was floating around, looking at me quite suspiciously. I did not dare to come too close ;) Besides that, I had nor resin boots, neither a ladder or bridge -- and the nest was located safely in the water! Just two metres from the shore line.
Happily, this time I was lucky to witness a little pause in the sitting process, when the duck for 20 seconds came off the nest, and then pretty quickly returned to her guarding post. But I had 15 seconds to shoot the eggs.
Perhaps, it is time to round up the story. I really want to see the ducklings! But I was off the city and really had no time to inspect the area again since May, 10.
Well, lets see if I have time for this on Sunday! Maybe I already missed something?..
| location: | St.Petersburg, Russia | May 2021 | natural lighting |
| camera/lens: | Canon 5D | Canon 70-300mm | raw-conv. |
