A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than that of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact. - Aldo Leopold

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Black-crested Titmouse Confirmed

My friends and bird experts, Jaci Kroupa and her son, Jesse Huth, were kind enough to confirm my tentative identification of the Black-crested Titmouse in one of our nest boxes.

Here's the photo again, taken on April 1st. I think she's sitting on the eggs. I don't think they had hatched yet.

Here's a photo from last week, April 8th, showing the four hatchlings. Three were asking me desperately to feed them, but I didn't have anything with me. The look quite young because the don't have feathers and their eyes are not open. My guess is they are a few days old.

When we checked the nest box with the oldest bluebird hatchlings today, they were gone. I'm assuming they fledged. Next week I'll have a sequence of photos showing their development.

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