Eating and testing their wings

American avocet chicks (http://tinyurl.com/77o86) hatched and fledged early this year at Palo Alto Baylands on San Francisco Bay.

Now it's almost time for their neighboring black-necked stilt chicks to take their place in Nature's world. The Baylands have been home to the youngsters while they paced the marsh and ate non-stop.

Sometimes they get tired and head for shelter under Mom's feathers: http://tinyurl.com/7brlz

When the adult stilts fly off to chase northern harriers (http://tinyurl.com/d5pjm) or other predators away, the youngsters hide by the pickleweed. Most of the time the kids hunt and eat: http://tinyurl.com/col6l

Chicks constantly flutter their wings even though they don't have all their feathers: http://tinyurl.com/auf8l

Soon they'll take off into the sunset on their own: http://tinyurl.com/735qb

All comments welcome.

Mark Bohrer
Mountain and Desert Photography
www.mountain-and-desert.com
Subscribe to my free newsletter for wildlife photo tips and print discounts! 


=========================================================
To Unsubscribe: Send email to leica-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in 
the Subject field. The acknowledgment that you then receive MUST be replied to 
per instructions. You may also log in to the Web interface to unsubscribe.

Other related posts: