Birds and Nature

These are recently fledged Black Phoebes, notice their very short tails. The one in top pic clearly shows it's brightly colored gape. The pic below shows actually 3 young Black Phoebes--see the tail feathers below the bird on the right, those are from the third fledgling that is between the other two and facing away. Like most Black Phoebe families I have followed over the years, this one one has the young fledglings almost hidden behind a lot of tree limbs. But they were only about 10 feet from the Fremont Irrigation Ditch. The bottom pic is a young Eastern Phoebe that is also clearly showing it's brightly colored gape. This phoebe and another young one had flown out into a yard but soon retreated to the thick vegetation by an irrigation ditch. SeEtta

I found this cicada in my lawn last week so I showed it to my young friend Hailey who is showing a developing interest in nature. She got these excellent pics with my Samsung cellphone. My yard seems to be an unusual place for this Camama species of cicada which is called the 'cactus dodger' species because "...known for their affinity for cacti like prickly pear & cholla, and are most likely named Cactus Dodgers for their ability dodge the needles of their favorite plants." SeEtta

I took this brief video clip earlier this summer of this pair of Western Grebes engaged in a courtship dance at Lake Cheraw. When the wind isn't as loud you can hear the vocalizing of these grebes. SeEtta WesternGrebesCourtshipDance from SeEtta Moss on Vimeo .