Wonderful story and pix.  Thanks very much for sharing them.

Jane


On 7/7/2017 10:24 PM, Ian Clark wrote:
> A pair of Eastern kingbirds fledged this week in North Haverhill, NH. I
> watched them Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings and took a few pix.
> Tuesday both were in the nest. Wednesday the larger of the two ventured out
> of the nest to a nearby branch for a few minutes before making his way back
> to his tree and eventually back into the nest. Thursday morning found both
> of them on a well-lit branch about 15 feet from the nest. I had great views
> of both parents bringing in bugs - mostly dragonflies - and a few berries.
> Take a look, http://ianclark.com/critters/kingbirds.php
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> There have been kingbirds nesting in this nest since I found it in 2012, the
> first year I started getting serious about nature photography. On one of my
> early trips, I'd seen one of the parents perched on several very promising
> photo props. The next morning, I was back before dawn, shoved my kayak into
> the brush and set up a nice 'fort' out of camo cloth and sat back to await
> the kingbirds. One of the adults eventually showed up and landed right where
> I wanted. After preening a bit, he? set to work nabbing dragonflies. After
> he grabbed the third, he flew over and landed on the bow of my apparently
> not very well hidden kayak. He looked me over, found me uninteresting and
> went back to hunting. After he caught a few more dragonflies, he took one to
> the nest, which is how I found it. After about the eighth or ninth flight to
> catch bugs, he decided the bow of my boat wasn't a suitable perch. My head
> provided a much better view, and he was comfortable coming and going from
> there for much of the morning. I decided I probably didn't need to try to
> hide from them anymore. Ever since, one of the adults will use my kayak as a
> perch when I sitting in the area. I found one source that says the greatest
> age recorded for kingbirds was 11+ years. I'm hopeful that I've been
> watching the same parents all these years.
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> ___________________________________________________________________________
> 
> Ian Clark
> PO Box 51
> West Newbury, VT 05085
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> (848) 702-0774
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> www.IanClark.com
> www.UpperValleyPhotos.com
> www.LeeClark.com
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