Husband, granddaughter and I had a wonderful hour at Nisqually Wildlife Preserve this afternoon, between 2-3pm. We saw more birds than I thought we would for that time of day. On our way out I witnessed a strange thing I'd like all your opinions about.I first heard a bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt....not real loud, but close to the boardwalk. I spotted a 5-6" bird on a branch, that appeared to be a juvenile (it didn't have long flight feathers on tail or wings yet) it was an allover brownish-grey, with a little markings. But, it was hard to me to identify, because it had it's back to me the whole time and had it's feathers a little puffed up. I then realized it was a fledgling that was calling for food. Lo and behold, a Yellow Warbler appeared and fed it. Then the YW would go out into the tree, foraging, and bring back more bugs for the fledgling. What baffled me is that this fledgling was a lot bigger than the YW. I don't think it was a YW fledgling. Was it? That's what I'm wondering about.On the other hand, could the maternal instincts of the Yellow Warbler been so strong that she couldn't resist the babie's crying and just had to feed it even if it wasn't hers? (I know how strong those maternal instincts can be!)
Strange but beautiful,
Thanks for your input
Terry PWest Seattle
terryspeart at gmail.com