hatchling

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher Nestlings /  by Todd Henson

Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers feeding their young nestlings. You can see the feet of the other parent hanging on a small branch to the right of the larger branch.

One of the many joys of avian photography is observing and photographing nesting behavior. You need to be careful, of course, to avoid causing any problems for the birds. You don’t want to stress them, scare them away, damage the nest or surroundings, or attract a predator to their nest. And that makes finding a nest you can safely observe for brief periods of time a very special thing, indeed.

One year in mid-June I found a small Blue-gray Gnatcatcher nest in a tree just off the trail. It wasn’t so low that I could look down into the nest, but it was low enough to see the little chicks heads as the adults fed them. I only spent a short period of time at the nest, perhaps 10 minutes, as I didn’t want to attract attention to it, either of predators or other people who might then attract even more attention. These things can sometimes get out of hand. I enjoy sharing, but in these cases I’ve learned to stay quiet to try to protect the well-being of the birds.

I was fortunate in this short time to observe both adults busily feeding the chicks. When they left the nest the chicks would quiet down and lower themselves. But when an adult returned the chicks started making noises to attract the attention of the adult, yelling, “Feed me, feed me!” In one photo you can see an adult holding a captured spider while the other adult feeds one of the chicks.

Feed me! One of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher nestlings lifts it head and opens its mouth waiting for food from the incoming parent.

Both adult Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers at the nest, one holding a spider for the young nestlings.

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher nests are interesting. They are covered with moss, lichen, and other small things held together and stuck to the tree with spider webbing or caterpillar silk. I’ve watched nests being built and it’s an amazing process. These little fearless birds are so industrious and so fast. It really is a beautiful thing.

I know some of you might not find this next part as interesting, but I was fascinated to observe the removal of a fecal sac from the nest. These are closed nests. And all animals that eat must purge themselves of waste. Well, how do these birds keep their nests clean with several young all eating and growing together? The young chicks expel their waste in a small fecal sac, which adults will remove from the nest. Nice and tidy. And for scientists and naturalists these fecal sacs are a wealth of information about the diet and health of the birds. I’m just a photographer and nature enthusiast, though, so I left the fecal sacs to the birds. 😀

You can just see the fecal sac at the lip of the nest, just below the adult.

The parent grabs the fecal sac. Unfortunately, I lost focus on the birds.

The parent lifts the fecal sac out of the nest, keeping it clean.

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Snapping Turtle Hatchling /  by Todd Henson

The first look down on the little Snapping Turtle hatchling.

Snapping Turtles in Virginia dig a nest and lay their eggs in the May to June time frame. Hatchlings emerge from these nests in late August. This year my father and I were very fortunate to stumble upon a lone hatchling at a local park.

We were on our way out of the park, walking along a paved section of trail when we both saw something small on the pavement. It looked like a tiny turtle. I started leaning forward and questioned if it was real. I’d been fooled in the past by little toy animals left on the trail. But this ones eyes occasionally blinked, so we quickly realized it wasn’t a toy.

I only had my wide angle zoom lens (16-35 mm) with me so I bent down very close to the turtle to create a photo from above. Then I got down on my hands and knees to get closer to the turtle’s perspective, which was difficult considering how small it was. At first I placed the lens right in front of the hatchling. All this time it just sat there, only blinking. But after I set the lens in its face it began quickly moving forward, right towards me and the camera. Maybe it saw itself in the lens? Maybe it was just the movement or close proximity that spurred it on.

Good morning, little hatchling. As I lay down in front of the Snapping Turtle it began moving quickly towards me.

I moved beside it then and began creating some profile shots. It was a fairly cloudless day, so the sun was creating strong shadows, as you can see in the first couple photographs. I asked my father to try standing in front of the sun, casting a little shade on the hatchling. This helped eliminate the extreme contrast of sun and shadow, as can be seen in the next couple photos. And who knows, perhaps it also gave this tiny turtle a little respite from the blazing sun.

A profile look at the baby Snapping Turtle as it quickly moved along the pavement. We shaded it from the sun for a bit.

We encountered the Snapping Turtle on pavement, but it was very close to the edge of the wetlands. So my father and I stayed with the turtle, letting it move on its own, but walking beside it until it left the pavement and moved past a small fence line closer to the water. There were a number of folks walking the trail, some with pets, some jogging, others with baby strollers. We didn’t want anyone to inadvertently crush the baby turtle. Hatchlings odds of survival are fairly low, but hopefully we increased its chances just a bit that day.

I created my favorite photograph of the Snapping Turtle hatchling after it left the pavement and rested in a more natural environment.

After escorting the hatchling off the trail we started looking around for other hatchlings. We didn’t see any, but very close by we did find the remains of one or more nests with scattered egg fragments. It appeared at least one of these nests had been dug up by something, perhaps a fox, coyote, or raccoon. There was an interesting smell right at the nest site, but I’ve no clue if that was turtle, predator, or something else entirely.

A look at a Snapping Turtle nest with shell fragments scattered around. It appears something may have dug up the nest.

Another look at the Snapping Turtle nest area, where a hole has been dug in the upper right, likely by a predator. Egg shell fragments are scattered about in front of the hole.

The nests were located in a very small stretch of land between the pavement (newly laid) and a black fabric fence to separate the construction area from the woods beyond. A thin layer of straw had been laid on the ground to encourage grass to grow. The nests appear to have hatched after this. I’m curious when the nests were dug, whether construction had yet begun or had it already completed?

A wider view of what might be multiple Snapping Turtle nests. You can see holes and shells at the bottom, around the middle, and again near the top.

This photo shows the interesting location of the Snapping Turtle nests. The paved trails is on the left. On the right is a fabric construction tarp separating the trail construction area from the woods beyond. Straw has been laid on the ground to encourage grass to grow. The nests in this photo extend from the middle towards the upper right of the image.

Finding this little Snapping Turtle hatchling brought back memories of growing up in Massachusetts near a river where each year we’d find lots of baby turtles crossing the road between the housing area and the hill leading down to the river. I very much enjoyed getting to see this sight again, even if it was just a single hatchling. Who knows, perhaps we’ll see more next year. I’ll certainly keep my eyes open for them.

To learn more about Snapping Turtles, especially in Virginia, head over to the Virginia Herpetological Society. They have lots of great info on all sorts of reptiles and amphibians in Virginia.

Photography Prints by Todd Henson

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