Final hurrah!

  

Okay, one more hummingbird post!  Eric was in Davis all week, so when he arrived in Cotati tonight we went by to check on the Anna's Hummingbird family.  No juveniles in the nest, but we found one in a tree not too far away.

Eventually we heard the mother hummingbird calling in the area, and then to my surprise, the juvenile starting calling, too.  I hadn't heard a juvenile hummingbird call before, so it was a fun moment for me (and check out the video below!).

 

 

The juvenile's begging call is a very high-pitched seet note.  It is described as a begging call, but it also seemed like a contact call — alerting its mom to its location.  Then the mom flew in for a feeding:

 

 

When the juvenile started calling, I decided to try to record a video with my camera to capture the sound.  Although I was mostly trying to record audio and wasn't really trying to get a video, the juvenile is in the video and called a few times, so here you go!  

The call note is somewhat faint and very high pitched, so it might be hard to hear.  If needed, you can try using headphones, and turning up the volume of your speakers.  Watch for the juvenile opening its bill and listen for the call notes at ~2 seconds, 7 seconds, and 20 seconds.  (There are some background sounds — dogs barking, kids playing, a bat hitting a ball, etc.)

[If you are reading this in an e-mail and can't see the video player below, click on the title of the post to go to the NHBH website.]

I'm doubtful that we'll see the juveniles again, but this was a fun final hurrah!

Time to fly!

  

Well, I was on the fence about checking the hummingbird nest tonight.  I was running a little late, and I thought perhaps they'd still be in the nest tomorrow.  But then I thought...what if they aren't?  So I swung down to check on them after work.

When I first approached, I could see one juvenile in the nest...but only one.  I tried to scan different branches in the vicinity of the nest to see if I could find the second juvenile, but I wasn't having much luck.  Then I heard mom calling and she flew in to the nest:

 

 

 

After the feeding, I followed her as she flew to a second spot about 8 feet away from the nest...to the second juvenile!

 

 

 

She fed the second one and then flew off.  I watched the newly fledged juvenile for a few minutes.  Occasionally it would try out its wings:

 

 

 

 

But mostly it sat very still, looking around and listening to the early evening sounds:

 

 

 

Adventure awaits!

Ready for supper

  

It feels like these little hummingbirds are getting very close to fledging, so I checked on them after work tonight (12 March 2024).  They were ready for supper, just like me!

Comparing goosenecks

 

Close-up of a pelagic gooseneck barnacle (Lepas sp.) on a piece of driftwood, 11 March 2024.  These barnacles attach to floating materials in the open ocean.  

Lepas is similar to Pollicipes polymerus, the gooseneck barnacle that lives in the rocky intertidal zone, but you can see a number of differences: 

- Lepas has fewer calcareous plates.
- Lepas has a smoother stalk texture.
- Pollicipes tends to have dark pigment (red, brown, or black) at the edges of the largest plates, whereas these areas are paler in Lepas (but can be orange).  

See below for a comparison!

 

 

Up at the rim

  

Yesterday the juvenile Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) were nestled down low in the nest, but today (10 March 2024) they were up at the rim, moving around, preening, and trying out their wings, so here are a few more photos to document their progress.

It's becoming harder for the two of them to fit in the nest together:

 

 

 

A view of their surroundings:

 

 

 

 

Mom hovering while feeding them:

 

 

 

Their juvenile feathers are coming in:

 

 

 

Looks like we're going to have nice weather this week, so it seems like they'll have a good chance of growing up and perhaps departing the nest before too long.

Hummingbird update

  

Just a quick Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) update.  The two juveniles in the nest I've been checking on in our neighborhood have grown quite a bit.  

This morning I saw the female come in to feed the little ones:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure how much longer they'll be in the nest (another week or so?), but it's great to see them doing so well. 

 

P.S.  Earlier posts about this nest are here:

"Weathering the storm" on 13 February 2024

"Two little birds" on 3 March 2024

 

A chiton with flair

  

Eric snapped this great photo of a Veiled Chiton (Placiphorella velata) during field work this afternoon (8 March 2024).  Impressive how well this species looks like the surrounding habitat — rock, coralline algae, and red seaweeds.  This individual even has a little bit of branching coralline algae growing on its shell plates!  

Here's another image from a little farther back:

 

 

For more information about this intriguing predatory chiton, you can review the post called "A veiled threat" from 21 August 2012.  And there's a beautiful underwater photo in the post called "Camouflaged like coralline" on 11 August 2021.