ML485102131
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult Female - 1
Observation details
Nest #6 observed 08:30-11:30. Female did not approach to mob me while I scoped the nest; perhaps she is used to this by now. In the nest were 3 advanced nestlings, judged to be about 22 days old. The nest also contained hundreds of mites, observed to be crawling all over the nestlings and the interior of the cavity. After scoping the nest there was a significant load of mites on the camera and pole. 08:55 observed a prey delivery (dragonfly). She brought the prey to the mouth of the cavity, leaned in delivered the morsel, then pulled back and departed, still holding part of the insect, at least the wings. Whether she kept part of it to eat herself or simply discarded the wings is unknown; after a short loop she landed at the sentry perch near the nest with nothing in her bill. The nestlings went quiet for a long time after scoping, and there were no prey deliveries for over 80 minutes. Finally around 10:15 the young started to vocalize again and the female resumed delivering food every couple of minutes. Like last week, dragonflies were a common prey item. During my visit I heard at least one other martin calling, distantly, while observing the female near nest #6, so she’s not completely alone here as we near the end of the nesting season. Like last week there was no sign of a male. I did not carefully notate prey deliveries today because I was trying to get good sound recordings of the nestlings. Unfortunately, the recording conditions (sporadic wind, air traffic, distance shooting range) conspired against me.
Technical information
- Model
- OM-1
- Lens
- OLYMPUS M.300mm F4.0
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 300 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/5.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/2500 sec
- Dimensions
- 1800 pixels x 1200 pixels
- Original file size
- 149.42 KB