Ooh Baby Baby...Baby Baby! Chicks, that is

Well it's definitely that time of year down here in the Florida wetlands - the rookeries are filled with the noise of freshly hatched chicks, growing chicks, all wanting FOOD! from the parents. The population of the wetlands grows 5-10x when so many species of birds all hatch within a few months' time.

I thought I'd share some of the baby bird variety from the local wetlands over the past month or so, for those who enjoy wildlife and birds. Just as an FYI - you should never disturb nesting birds or nests, climb trees, or disrupt their behavior. Florida is a very unique environment where every one of the shots below was taken from a publicly accessible spot, without ever disturbing the chicks or birds...we can stand 5-15 feet from a nest and clearly see right into it without having to touch a single leaf:

Pied-billed grebe chick (with the white on the face) following mom around begging for food:


Wood storks aren't very pretty...and they're chicks are pretty ugly too - but ugly in a cute way:


Wood stork parents, with chicks below:


Great egret chicks looking a bit sparse on the feathers, just a week or so hatched:


This grey-headed swamphen chick was sitting patiently in the grass waiting for mom to dig up some food:


The anhinga chicks hatched a few weeks before some of the other species, so they're already growing quite a bit - almost the height of mom on the left:


A red-winged blackbird mom feeding her newly hatched batch:


A well-hidden nest deep in the trees - but I found a path to thread the lens through for a peek at these green heron chicks:


Another well-hidden nest - I really had to search with my lens for quite a while to find it - on a floating island just 10 feet away. This is the first time I've ever managed to photograph a baby boat-tailed grackle:


I know...it's not a bird. Nor is the egg in its mouth a bird. But it's on the theme. This bad-boy raccoon had dug up a softshell turtle nest, and was busy depleting the nest of most of its eggs. Circle of life and all:

 

Thank you Joanie. The wetlands are amazing this time of year...so many babies - nests of all the birds combined number over 400, in an area about 2 square miles! You can hear the babies all screaming and squawking for food even as you're pulling into the parking lot, still a few hundred yards away from the wetlands. Especially the wood stork chicks - which are by far the most numerous and the loudest. When you walk in, you're standing just a few feet away from a dozen of the nests, as some of the birds build theirs on branches that overhang the handrails of the boardwalk in some spots.