Heron news and stalking squirrels

I found out that there were a total of at least 5 baby herons in the two nests.  2 in one nest and 3 in the other.  The 2 in the one nest were already fledging.

One of the older baby herons decided he wanted to go eat squirrels.  There are people who regularly leave grain for the squirrels and this heron was taking advantage of that.  The crow was suspicious and, after having a few bites, left the scene.

I got a shot of the heron trying to attack the squirrel, but it was cut off at the bottom.  He missed.  When the squirrels ran into the reeds, he went after them.  But, it looked like he was going to miss out of having squirrel for breakfast.  Unfortunately, there used to be three ducklings around there, too, but they were not seen.

In other news, here's a photo of a Cassin's kingbird on top of a speed limit sign:

Bigboi and Runner Duck:

And, Little Sissy is doing OK after the death of her sister, Big Sissy.  While it looks like she's going to eat that fishing line on that log, she actually didn't and went on to find other types of food.

The herons fledge, the male killdeer chicks leave

It looks like both heron chicks have fledged for good. I saw this one yesterday and when he got nervous, he flew back to the nest. But, today, there was no sign of life in the nest at all. I did see at least one heron still in the area, though.



The killdeer chicks and their parents have begun to go somewhere else other than the ballfield. Yesterday, Spike was in one ballfield and Squiggy was with his mom and dad. Castor and Pollux were not seen.

Squiggy

Today, Pollux was in a field next to Shy and her boyfriend who were beginning to mate and get serious about nesting again. He didn't get upset about me taking his photo.

Pollux

Peaches' ducklings are all still together. In fact, most of the ducklings are staying longer with their siblings and/or parents this year. Last year, they went off on their own by the time they were five weeks old. The ducklings have most of their feathers except for their fuzzy butts. In a couple of weeks, they will have their flight feathers.




Pepper looks like all the rest of the ducklings except for his black head. I wonder what his adult feathers will be like. Hopefully, we shall find out in a couple of months.



More duckling photos:

The parking lot ducklings (the last one of four):



Ducky's ducklings:



Those ducklings are very aggressive!

And, finally, these two killdeers were flirting. I think it's Junior and his mate. He just loves his girlfriend and can't stop flirting with her.