and the quest for nests continues as the rainy season approaches!
on one of my routes going to the office and back home, adri & i spotted another nest! cradled on the V of iron bars supporting high tension electric wires was a white-breasted wood-swallow nest! 2 young birds, fully feathered and probably about ready to fledge in a few days, were being watched over and fed by 2 adults.
the nest was built by a very busy street, in fact, construction was going on to improve the pedestrian walk just below the electric pole where the nest was located.
on my way to work this morning, adri &; i checked out the nest and did our usual documentation. it was just a little past 7am, but the construction workers and their supervisors were already about their business, and after a few minutes couldn't resist taking a peek at what we were doing. even the security guard at the nearby building got curious. at first they would steal glances in the general direction of where we were looking. not seeing what it was that caught our attention, they hovered closer and closer to us until we finally pointed to the nest. they all took a few minutes to watch adri's camera screen as he recorded the activity at the nest.
"dahil may pugad sa langit, o diba nasa langit sya?" one of them chuckled softly.
they themselves noticed that the young birds were already probably several days old already, and were amazed that even if the nest was just right above them as they worked, they had never noticed it. how did we see it, they asked?
seek and you shall find.
the wood-swallow nest was nestled on 2 iron bars of an electric post. it looked like it was made of mostly dried grass. the 2 young birds. looking like mini-wood-swallows, were already very active and moved around the nest a lot. the nest must be pretty deep though, because at times both birds would sink into the nest and disappear from sight completely!
"here comes mom/dad!"
"feed me! feed me!"
"nom nom nom nom nom..."
"what about meeeeee moooooooom/daaaaaaaaad?!?"
the young birds were very, very active. they would spend several minutes preening and stretching or even pick at nesting material. sometimes they would venture out of the nest and walk on the iron bar, which looked a bit slippery. at several points we were afraid they would actually fall off.
here's the video adri took of the activity at the nest. it's all ambient sound, you can hear not only the birds, but also the traffic on the road, the up carillon playing and the comments of the workers who took the time to take a look at what we were doing...
postscript: a few electric posts down the street, we suspect there is another nest, of another bird. this one pretty well-hidden from curious eyes, even ours. we noticed this bird flying out and back again and again while we were documenting the wood-swallow nest, and on our way home in the afternoon, we finally figured out how it kept on disappearing. it would drop into the hollow of the wooden post, out of sight. can you guess what bird it is? wish us well as we try to figure out this next nest puzzle.
we suspect there is a nest inside the hollow of this wooden electric post. will we ever confirm it? wait and see!
No comments:
Post a Comment