Grouse Chicks

As a followup to the May 22nd post of a Grouse Nest that Jason Abell found, I returned to the nest today and retrieved the time lapse camera that had filmed the nest for the past week. The camera took about 4,000 photo before it ran out of memory, but that was enough to record the event of the grouse chicks hatching.

May 26th, 10:51AM - None of the eggs have hatched.



May 26th, 12:05PM - The grouse is back sitting on the eggs.



May 26th, 2:14PM - The first chick appears.



May 26th, 3:07PM - The chick is back under the mother grouse and an empty egg shell is seen.



May 26th, 4:00PM - Three chicks next to the mother grouse.



May 27th, 9:01AM - A heavy rain overnight but the grouse hatched at least 9 chicks.



May 27th, 9:35AM - Mother grouse and the chicks leave the nest and don't return. In less than a day after hatching the grouse chicks are out of the nest.

Grouse Nest

Jason Abell managed to locate a grouse nest on his farm while fixing fences and shared the location with me. Unlike the geese on our pond, grouse are harder to find and even harder to photograph.



I have placed an automatic camera about 4 feet from the grouse nest and will try to get some photos of a nesting grouse and maybe some photos of the chicks.

Goose Family

Another cool, drizzly day and the mother goose was trying to keep the little ones warm and dry under her wings during nap time. There's always one that doesn't want to sleep.



Nap time is over.



Time for swimming lessons.



Family photo - Mom on left, seven (7) goslings and dad on right.



Swimming lesson in the rain.

Goslings

After a month of sitting on a nest the big day has arrived and I got my first look at the little goslings. It was hard for her to hide the goslings as they squirmed around under her. Pieces of the egg shells are in the nest.



The weather was cool and drizzly, and Mother Goose tried to keep the goslings day and warm.



Some of the goslings are ready to head for the water.

Visiting Geese

I have been making several trips a day to our pond to check on the nesting goose and for a moment I thought the little ones had hatched.



It turned out to be another pair of geese from a neighboring pond, 1/4 mile away, had walked over to visit and show of their goslings.



The visit was friendly to start with but after a while the second pair of geese had overstayed their welcome. The resident gander had a few words with the visiting gander but he didn't take the hint.



In the afternoon, the turf war got even more heated and feathers started to fly. The two ganders battled for over a minute as the visiting goose and goslings watched. In the end, the visitors decided to stay on the far side of the pond.



By the end of the day none of the eggs in the resident goose nest had hatched.



Back on the nest after checking the eggs.

Waitting Goose

With today's warm weather the goose took some time off the nest for lunch and a quick swim. She has been sitting on the eggs for at least 25 days and the eggs should hatch within the next week.

Killdeer Chicks

While checking the killdeer nest today I noticed the bird was acting different than on my past visits to the nest.



On closer inspection of the nest I saw three of the four eggs had hatched and the fuzzy little chicks were still in the nest. Mother's Day for the killdeer.



The little chicks were motionless and huddled around the remaining egg. By the afternoon the fourth egg had hatched and the mother had moved the chicks to another location.

Sitting Duck

I've seen a pair of mallard ducks on our pond this spring and several times I would see the ducks and geese together.



This morning I found the duck sitting on a nest at the edge of the pond.



I'm not sure when the duck started sitting on the eggs since I've always seen the pair together until this morning.

Goose Nest

I drove to the cabin today to get some photos of the progress on the well pad construction and found the goose was off her nest and swimming in the pond with the gander. It didn't take the pair of geese too long before they were back at the nest.



The gander didn't come on shore but did follow me as I walked around the pond.



The goose was back on the nest when I returned from the well pad.

Killdeer Nest

While walking up the road to the cabin we noticed a pair of killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) near the food plot and located their nest. The killdeer is a ground nesting bird and their eggs blend into the surroundings.



The killdeer's nest is not easily visible but the birds will do their "broken-wing act" when you get close to the nest.



At times the birds charged straight at me to draw my attention away from the nest.



Within minutes the bird was back on its nest.

Goose Eggs

A pair of geese have been on the pond for the last week and today I found the nest while the bird was laying an egg.



Five eggs so far.

Turkey Nest

Since we travel back and forth on Joyce Road a lot to our different properties we've been asked several times this spring if we've seen any young turkey poults (chicks). Last Sunday I saw a half dozen hen turkeys in Jason's fields, but no poults. I may have the answer now. The hens are still sitting on their nests.

While I was mowing the small fields behind our house yesterday, I kicked a hen off her nest and missed the nest by inches with the tractor tire. I returned this morning to check on the nest and found the hen had returned. In the following picture, the nest is at the base of the tree on the right and the hen turkey is on the left, just taking off, wings raised.


The following photo shows the nest with 14 eggs in it.