July 22, 2003

Yow! Let's start the day with a grabber. I have seen pelicans sitting on telephone lines at only one place on earth – above the roadway between the south end of Moss Landing Harbor and Moro Cojo Slough. Weird. Such pouch stretching appears to be a favorite pastime of resting Brown Pelicans.


ESF staffers know that our Director of Communications and Development Stephen Slade has a thing for youngsters. Here he is getting up close and personal with a couple of Tree Swallow chicks that recently hatched in the nest box by our office trailer.


Just one week ago, the chicks were shy, their feathers were meager, and sightings were rare.


A few days later the feathers are filling in, the chicks are bolder, and one chick is definitely dominant, hogging the doorway.


Just a few days later and a second chick (I think there are 3 or 4) is closer to parity – is that a 3rd chick behind them? Note how their beaks are developing – it looks as if an adult beak (dark, sharp, pointed) is starting to form inside the wider beak of youth.


One of the parents has just flown by.


One parent heads back out to fetch more vittles. We've been following developments in this nestbox all season. The box was originally scouted by swallows in February, but it was Western Bluebirds that first made it home and raised a brood of chicks. Later, a pair of Tree Swallows moved in, and now we see a second brood is well on its way to fledging.