Nesting birds         

Wild birds - Bringing their young ones out to this world in an hostile environment

Nesting series -  

I got the feeling that the birds were working with the clock, the Oriole is nesting once more. If you go back to my  original series for Oriole, I started watching the nest on 4th March, 2009. This year the date is just a mere 3 weeks later. This year, I am writing in real time and the nesting progresses. Keeping my fingers crossed that this nesting will be a smooth event.

March 25th, 2009 -Thursday

The discovery of this nest was sparked off by my need to do videos. This day, a pair of Orioles were staying put even as I approached them. For a few days now, I have seen this pair hanging around. The video shoot kicked up my curiosity. I was so absorbed and at the same time, I do not more pictures of the Oriole. As hindsight for this write-up, I extracted a scene from the video.

I couldn't see the food in their mouth when I did the video. Now the pictures showed me information that I encountered and missed out. Till this day, I was merely curious with no suspicion that required me to do something.

March 27th, 2009 -Saturday

This day, I have not a place in mind to do birding but to check on the Kite and Goshawk. There I met up with Loi who was making the Rimba his regular haunts

The focus with Loi was showing to him the spot where the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher would be appearing. It was not straight forward long period of waiting for the Flycatcher to appear. It was during this period that the activities of teh Oriole attracted me once more. I waited for teh orioles, a pair of them to settle down on the tree. That was a good 20 minutes. Suddenly, one of the bird darted off to a branch and then moments later flew off. The mate that remained watch also took off. I knew then a nest was nearby and on that tree the birds were perched.  I searched that particular branch and hidden among teh leaves I spotted a nest. Alerted Loi on its existance and showed him teh spot. I left the place.

Before that spent a few minutes watching for movements. My patience paid off when I saw 2 tiny beaks. There were a pair of chicks.

March 28th, 2009 -Sunday

I was at the place all by myself. Good chance to watch. Unfortunately, a group of people visiting the park had parked their cars near the nest. Worse still another group of Indians had taken up the table for their drinking session.

Not to attract their attention, I made a few cursory pictures for record. This one the parent bring in the food

At another vantage point I got a better view of the chick showing its status

The same chick again showing the downs beneath its beak and also the fine downs round its eyes. With this picture, I can safely assumed that the chick could be 5/6 days old.

March 29th, 2009 -Monday

It was a very wet Sunday night. This morning I was checking how the chicks faired. Something not right! The parent who were normally attentive to my presence near the nest would fly close and gave that continuous hash calls. This morning, they were not doing that?

Then I checked the nest, a big blob of yellow was outside the nest. On closer examination, this was the chick. Watched patiently for signs of activities. I was getting worried. There was no sign of movement from this chick nor the sight of the second chick. My fear grew worse when I examined the pictures. The downs of the chicks were pressed hard against the branches. Was this sign plus that of no feeding meant that the chick is sick?

On Tuesday, we went down to the coast to seek out the nesting sites of Hornbills. I could not follow through to check on my concern. When I am back in the late afternoon, typical of the season heavy rains.

March 31st, 2009 -Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, I was there early. the same signs. No feeding, no frantic calls and the chick still outside the nest. The relief in me came when I saw the chick making small movement of the head.

Then the chick was progressing normally and was now out of its nest. Strange too was the disappearance of the second chick. The nest could not accommodate a single chick, it was unlikely that the second chick could remain in the nest and hidden from view