Beat the heat..
How do you keep cool in the summer? The Editor and I have a “Spa tub” that we use to try to keep cool in the summer (and warm in the winter). Birds have similar needs too, especially in warm humid climates like Florida. That is one reason we don’t see many birds out in the summertime. They are in the shade somewhere trying to keep cool.
Remember the Osprey nest I shared in the May blog called “Perilous Times”. Now the highway crews are clearing all the trees around that bridge to build a replacement span for the existing drawbridge. There is no place nearby for them to rest and keep cool. The nest is on top of a light signal and already exposed to the heat of the sun. Most Osprey nests are like that. Not a lot of canopy for cover. The nesting bird (mainly the female) stands with its wings spread over the eggs and hatchlings to provide shade. I have watched the young mother do this for hours on end day after day.
Birds don’t have sweat glands, they must either get into shade, pant rapidly like a dog, or just get in the water to cool off. Many birds migrate for climate control. The Osprey hatchlings can’t fly yet so they just pant or stay in the shade under the parent’s wing whenever possible. Heat dissipates through the legs or eyelid circles or anywhere there are just a few feathers. Some say they evolved that way. I think they were made that way from the get go..or they would have died out long before "evolution" had time to take place. Especially now with all this “climate change” stuff.
We are like those Osprey hatchlings and have a similar promise of protection made to us too. In Psalms we read “He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings though shalt trust”. Gee, now I know where it came from. The birds knew it all along. Keep cool and “Be blessed”. Harry
Post Script. A few days after the Osprey photo was taken the Mother Osprey was hit by a car and a local Bird Rescue organization know as BEAKS sprang into action and rescued the two hatchlings. They found the mother with a broken wing laying in the bushes near by. The trio was reunited at BEAKS where they are being cared for. She will probably never fly but hopefully the two young Osprey can be released into the wild someday.
Turn up the AC mom, sweating like a dog up here in this heat!
Remember the Oystercatcher Hatchling? it is growing like a weed and sticking close to the parents (sometimes).
Same hatchling as above from 21 May..see how it has grown in two weeks ..
Female Roseate Spoonbill uses her wings to keep shade on the hatchling spoonies.
"He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings though shalt trust" Wilsons Plover with two chicks under its wings…Photo by Jack Rogers with permission,
Female Mallard provides protection for her ducklings.
Got your ducks in a row for the summer heat wave?
You people pay money for this mud bath treatment, I get it for free each day! Who is the real birdbrain huh?
Spoon fed spoonies!