I placed a fern one my deck three weeks ago. In Indianapolis the temperatures fluctuate a great deal this time of year. I started to take plants back inside, only to find a Mourning Dove had made her nest in the fern. It wasn't an impressive nest, but the parents more than make up for the lack of nest building skills with their parenting efforts. I 'assumed' it was the female on the nest, but learned through this class (and field guides), the male and female share incubation responsibilities. The Mourning Dove has become my favorite bird. I have been thoroughly amazed with the parents sharing this 'parenting' responsibilities. She sits on the nest during the day, and he takes the night 'duty'. We had a fairly significant storm shortly after the eggs were laid. He was on the nest, and I was concerned the fern might blown off of the hook supporting it. I watched, and he never left the nest with lightning, thunder, and 40 mph winds blowing the nest almost horizontally! I've never been a bird watcher, but this experience 'hooked me'. In trying to learn about this bird, I learned about the Cornell Ornithology Lab's course offering. I enrolled, and it's been a great decision. Since then, the fledglings have hatched, and the parents have continued their tremendous care, and support. However, as I read information from Cornell's Bird Academy on the Mourning Dove, the parents visit the nest less as the fledglings mature. I've found all the information they've supplied on this bird is correct. The parents are visiting the nest less, but still visit several times a day to feed the fledglings. I've seen both fledglings flap their wings, and lifted themselves off of the nest. From the information provided by the Cornell, I believe they will be flying soon, and learning to eat seed instead of the 'pigeon milk' provided by parents. Below is a picture of the mother bird with the her two fledglings.

@Jeff Jeff, how exciting! I love the picture... What an amazing experience you've been having. Maybe I should try putting a fern on my balcony. I live on the Connecticut shoreline.

I placed a fern one my deck three weeks ago. In Indianapolis the temperatures fluctuate a great deal this time of year. I started to take plants back inside, only to find a Mourning Dove had made her nest in the fern. It wasn't an impressive nest, but the parents more than make up for the lack of nest building skills with their parenting efforts. I 'assumed' it was the female on the nest, but learned through this class (and field guides), the male and female share incubation responsibilities. The Mourning Dove has become my favorite bird. I have been thoroughly amazed with the parents sharing this 'parenting' responsibilities. She sits on the nest during the day, and he takes the night 'duty'. We had a fairly significant storm shortly after the eggs were laid. He was on the nest, and I was concerned the fern might blown off of the hook supporting it. I watched, and he never left the nest with lightning, thunder, and 40 mph winds blowing the nest almost horizontally! I've never been a bird watcher, but this experience 'hooked me'. In trying to learn about this bird, I learned about the Cornell Ornithology Lab's course offering. I enrolled, and it's been a great decision. Since then, the fledglings have hatched, and the parents have continued their tremendous care, and support. However, as I read information from Cornell's Bird Academy on the Mourning Dove, the parents visit the nest less as the fledglings mature. I've found all the information they've supplied on this bird is correct. The parents are visiting the nest less, but still visit several times a day to feed the fledglings. I've seen both fledglings flap their wings, and lifted themselves off of the nest. From the information provided by the Cornell, I believe they will be flying soon, and learning to eat seed instead of the 'pigeon milk' provided by parents. Below is a picture of the mother bird with the her two fledglings.

What a beautiful pic of a mourning dove! I love them too.

@Sheilah Thank you, Sheilah!

Lisa, A thought for your nuthatches, if you're using a camera that allows you to switch to manual mode, you might try setting it to manual focus and either full manual exposure or aperature and shutter priority. With manual focus, point camera somewhere where you know they will go to, at a particular spot near a feeder for example, and focus the camera on that spot. With the camera in aperature and shutter priority mode, set shutter to something fast like 1/2000 sec and aperature to 5.6 or 6.3 maybe. You can let the camera decide what ISO to use though if you normally run your pictures through a post processing software then you could easily get away with setting the camera to underexpose by -0.3 possibly as far as -1 so that it'll select a lower ISO. That'll result in a darker picture with less noise that you can brighten up in Lightroom or whatever software you use. Or, set camera to full manual mode with the same shutter and aperature as above but select the ISO yourself. Being unsure of what kind of camera you're using, I think you may be able to accomplish this on any dslr, slr, or film camera. Phone camera apps now nowadays have an option to switch to a manual or pro mode that gives you many of these controls too. Hope this helps! I don't know that this is the best way to get you good pictures as I'm still learning a I go but this is currently how I approach getting pictures of elusive animals - set shutter, set aperature, adjust ISO for correct(or better) exposure, then maybe tweak shutter again.

I can relate! Last year I was given the opportunity to follow a pair of Cardinals as they raised their two young and this year I had a parent Carolina wren with (her?) 3 fledglings following her around begging for food. I also found a Brown Thrasher nest in my Azalea hedge that had 3 eggs in it, 2 of which hatched. I saw the baby birds only a couple of times while they were in the nest but never once they left. I see brown thrashers more often now though! Lol It's fun to watch mama bird fly all over the yard getting food with 3 young right behind her or, watching a nest, the little heads pop up at any sound thinking it's a parent bringing food. FOOD, FOOD, GIMMEE FOOD, IT'S BEEN TWO MINUTES AND I'M STARVING!

Although not in my backyard, I do sometimes see herons in nearby rivers and natural areas in Maryland.  It's always a treat to see them, and they fly so majestically.

❤️

What a nice scene.  It's always fun to watch hatchlings and these seem special indeed.  Thank you for the description of the Dad teaching the young ones to fly.  That was really enjoyable and interesting to hear about.

Such a beautiful bird, and lucky for you!  I haven’t seen any at my feeders but I have a friend who gets them often at hers.  I think she offers a wide variety of seeds etc.  to attract as many different birds as she can.  What type of seeds was your beauty enjoying?

@Terry Wow, what an amazing sight!  Nice job.

I think your photo is pretty good! I haven’t seen one of these.

Fantastic photos Michael! Thanks for sharing :)

Yes, that is an Orchard Oriole.

David, the little blue is blue all over including blue bill and legs. Whereas the great blue heron is really gray the little blue really is blue. In build it is a mini version of the great blue, slender and long-necked. The green heron has a different build, stocky and more horizontal, with yellow bill and legs. Not very green. The neck is definitely brown and usually has his head tucked into his shoulders.

Looks like a Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler.