Birdwatching Fledglings: Free gravy train continues

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, August 30, 2017

SOUTH PACIFIC COUNTY — It is August and many of the birds are still nesting. It seems that they may have gotten a late start due to our very rainy spring or have decided to nest for a second time. In any case, those who have fledged from the first nesting are still taking advantage of the free gravy train.

Some species like barn swallows, evening grosbeaks, black-headed grosbeaks and the white-crowned sparrow are still feeding their fledged young. In the case of the white-crowned sparrow if it is still feeding its young it is because its fledgling may be a huge, demanding, fluffy, brownish-grey baby called a brown-headed cowbird.

Often a first nesting will provide helpers for the second nesting. At Tarlatt Slough on the south end of Willapa Bay, for example, where the barn swallows nested, a second nest is underway. There seem to be quite a few birds flying in and out of the nesting area with food in their beaks. These second nesters are lucky to receive such attentiveness. This may help top ensure their survival and indeed help to fatten them for the long flight to their wintering grounds in South America.