Birds in nature, landscape and others.
When I was watching the Eurasian tree sparrows in the reedbeds, I saw great egrets flying in a V-shaped formation from the upper of the Oppe River. The river bends at a right angle, but the great egrets continued straight ahead, blocked by houses, and disappeared. It was a rare sight (taken on January 20).
Great egret flying in formation.
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There are about fifty gadwalls and several Eurasian coots in the river.
The coots collect algae at this time of year. The gadwalls attach to the coots. When coots are collecting algae, the gadwall will take away the algae spilled by the coot, and sometimes the algae that the coot is holding.
The coot dived to collect algae.
A gadwall stole algae from the coot.
The next is a video of the sequence of actions.
The other scene is next.
A coot dived to collect algae.
A gadwall chases the coot that has taken algae.
The gadwall tries to steal algae from the coot.
The gadwall stole algae from the coot.
Next is a video of the sequence of actions.
Mandarin ducks are occasionally observed in our area. In the fall, the mandarin ducks are on migration. On October 4, we saw two mandarin ducks 4 km downstream from here. Those images are shown below. The one on the right is
a male because of its red beak. This individual is an eclipse. On the left, it is hard to distinguish whether it is a young bird or a female. Now these birds are not there.
This brings us to the main topic. One male mandarin duck was with a group of spot-billed ducks on October 17. It was swimming around with these.
Then, to our surprise, he began courting them. He quickly raised his head.
Then he lowered his head. He repeated the same behaviors.
The mandarin duck tried to approach the spot-billed ducks, but they were running away from him. Still, the mandarin duck did not flinch.
For more information, please see the following video.
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One unhatched egg was left in the nest.
The chick was incubating the egg while the parents were away from the nest. The chick was 6 or 7 days old. We once observed children incubating eggs on June 7, 2021 (See website.). Only one of the three chicks incubated the egg. We would like to know the sex of the chick, but it was not possible. Unfortunately, this egg did not hatch.
It is too early to conclude from this observation alone that the chicks will incubate the eggs. More observations are needed.
The following site showed the other chick incubating the eggs (website).
See the video for the rest of the story. Please subscribe to my channel on YouTube. The name of account is “hachi ai“.
The parent caught a dragonfly. The chicks were puzzled because the food was so large, but it swallowed the dragonfly. See the video for details.
See the video for the rest of the story. Please subscribe to my channel on YouTube. The name of account is “hachi ai“.
Because of the heat, the little grebe was sending wind to the egg. It is interesting to see the movement of the wings in slow motion.
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A chick of little grebe dived while being piggybacked by its parent. I wonder if the chick will be safe.
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July 9 morning, 2022
The little grebe warms the eggs.
July 10 moring, 2022
Mom and Dad take turns warming the eggs
There are three eggs in the nest.
July 11 morning
The bird is holding the eggs still.
Sudden downpour of 120 mm per hour hit at around 8:00 p.m. on July 12.
July 13 evening
Torrents have brought down bushes and reeds.
Sudden downpour washed away the little grebe’s nest.
The little grebe lay eggs for the second time this year at the mouth of the Moro River. The male and female take turns warming their eggs. The floating nest must be constantly piled with fallen leaves or it will submerge. We hope the eggs hatch safely.
The white-cheeked starlings were bathing in the rice paddies. It was hard to get in deep enough. They were moving right and left looking for a good place.