Male Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, left, female on the right.
Wildewood Springs, March 2022.
This is a post devoted to the Yellow-Crowned Night Herons (YC) with a honey bee endnote.
Currently, the couples are mostly preening and courting.
She (more mustard color in yellow crown) seems to poke him with her beak.
They weave sticks.
It seems there is appreciation.
Sometimes they appear silly. Like when he sat on her.
They often whoop and then get to preening or weaving or stroking each other.
Here's a whoop, poke.
Then gentle slow strokes with the beak. They seem to really like each other. In bird speak that means they think they have a good shot at furthering their species.
So that's where the chicks get the habit of holding their sibs beak!
Beak bite, then hug around the neck.
The hug around the neck ends with a long feather stroke.
That brings a perk to their crown feathers.
The ending is surprising. She takes a nap on his back.
No wonder. Look at these preening calisthenics. I'd nap, too.
An endnote. Literally.
Bees inhabited the Barred Owl Box. That means it's theirs now. A few Wood Ducks thought it would be their nesting box. That's over, too. Why? Because the pheromone released by the queen bee lingers.
Bee keepers moving the live bees. This box is too close to units to let it remain as a bee box. (The other bee box is across the Pineneedle pond in a native area away from units. A swarm inhabits it annually.) The box will come down. Neighbor Kathy took this photograph.
Wood duck eggs.
