We Want Your Osprey Nest Continued

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In April our osprey nest was hijacked by a pair of geese. For a couple of days the osprey tried hard to reclaim his nest, but the brave geese wouldn't give up, and are now tending eggs or goslings (can't tell from the shore). We had not heard of this happening, but research tells us it does happen occasionally.

#OspreyNestTakeover #GooseOsprey #GooseOspreyWar #GooseInOspreyNest

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We Want Your Osprey Nest

 Osprey owners

 The Takeover

 Goose owners

Yucatan Mexico Celestun Flamingos February 7, 2018

Flamingos!!!  We talked a Mexican tour guide into taking us out early in the morning before the crowds in this small fishing village.  The light was beautiful.  Very pretty colorful birds.

This flamingo Takeoff photo is for sale at Zazzle as an 11x14  print.  https://www.zazzle.com/flamingo_takeoff_11x14_photo_print-190753255665955840
I like it a lot, with it's wings spread wide and a nice reflection on the river.

Flamingos in the air look sort of like flying sticks!

Flamingo Heart
I also turned the heart print into a 8x10 "painting" with the pink salt lake background from Las Coloradas (another place we visited later) .
  

Their necks are amazingly twisty!

There were mangrove islands in the background.

These two were having a dispute over something.  Food?  Women?  They were certainly making a lot of noise.

I saw many more birds that day which I will post soon, great blue herons, pelicans, cormorants, roseate spoonbills, an egret and a tricolored heron.  So be sure to stop back to see them, or follow my RSS feed or my Calm Reflections Photography Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/CalmReflectionsPhotography
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The Food Fight, Bird Style

When we expected snow, Jim filled up our bird feeder, but didn't set the weight limit to a squirrel's weight.  It's a beat up old bird feeder, but it still works.  By January 30th, the snow had melted, but the birds were still enjoying the seeds.  I think the big bird with a brown head and dark body is a cowbird and the small bird with the yellow beak and black stripe across the eye is a male house sparrow.  Best guess.  Any experts out there?  Watch what happened!  

The Private Osprey War 2014

I captured some somewhat unusual video footage of a male osprey attacking the pair on our nearby osprey nest.  Six short videos totaling about 3 minutes of footage have been pieced together.

The attacking bird was extremely aggressive.  He actually picked up a bird by the claws (not shown) and tossed it into the water, stomped on the birds,  and tried to knock them out of the sky.  One bird was cut on the leg.  Meanwhile, the nesting pair tried to build up their nest, even carrying a large stick that had fallen into the water to add to the nest.

The private war was quite exciting to watch, but I kept hoping that none of the birds would be critically injured. (and I don't think they were)  I am wondering if the birds were fighting over the nest or the female.  The nest is quite popular and there might be a shortage of good nests nearby. 

The female is the larger bird with a sort of brown necklace of feathers.

Please comment if you like or if you notice anything interesting about the behaviors of the birds.