Fascinating Birds

I'm back today with a quick update on some of the bird life around our house.  We found the owl in her nest!!!  It is such a thrill to have them back breeding here again.  They've moved their nest to a tree that is really close to our house, and thankfully, it looks a little more protected from the elements.  Here's hoping for happy families soon.  I hope you will see the nest and owl sitting.  Remember, it's about 30 feet off the ground.  I had my camera on 12x, so the photo is a little 'grainy', but, if you enlarge it you should see what I'm talking about.

I also noticed the plovers have hatched already.  I thought I could see little ones around the adult bird when I was driving out yesterday morning.  I did have my camera with me [essential these days!!].  I decided to torment the poor birds again and try for some photos, thinking the little ones probably couldn't get away on me.  What I witnessed was absolutely fascinating.  The parents ran off a short distance, starting screaching, holding out their wings and half limping, as if to let me know they were hurt and easy prey.  The little ones immediately dropped to the ground, without taking a step.  If I hadn't been looking for them, I could easily have stood on them.  They never moved a muscle, just lay there, and pretended to play dead.  I managed to photograph two of them quite closely [there was a third one], but got out of there rather quickly, so as not to upset the family any more than I had already.  Goodness, survival is an extremely strong instinct, and obviously inground from an early age.