Too Cute! - Episode "Our Baby Birds"

I've only watched the Animal Planet series, "Too Cute" a few times but I have to say I've enjoyed it.  Compared to a lot of what is on TV these days, at least that show makes me smile.  

Meanwhile, my 'pile' of digital photos of our local baby birds has been growing and growing.  Some of them have already been featured on the blog... like our bluebirds.  But I have a lot of other "too cute" babies to show you.  I thought about making it a contest for you to pick the cutest of them all.  However, when my girls were babies I never entered them in the baby contest at the Harford Fair because to me, they were definitely THE cutest babies and I didn't want any judge telling me otherwise!  So, no contest for these babies either... just enjoy!

The first "too cute" babies are.... the Killdeer!

They hatch from their eggs ready to hop up and start hunting for their own food, but this doesn't necessarily mean their parents have it easy!

In fact Killdeer parents seem more worried than most about their little ones' safety.  If you come anywhere close by, they will do a feigned-injury display to try to distract you away from the nest or young.  If I was doing a whole post about Killdeer I would take time to find an old photo of that and show you.  But I better not get distracted!

I really only should be showing you one or two photos of each kind of bird but I can't resist - these Killdeer babies really are too cute:

One day I watched as one of the Killdeer tried to hide under its parent.  It didn't quite make it all the way under but I guess it felt safer!

"Let me under Mama!"

"I can't see them, so they can't see me, right?"

Next are birds we are all familiar with.... American Robins.

I think we have a greedy baby in this bunch!  It got the bug and the worm!

Neither of the first two bird families was at our property so I can't give you too much info on how they made out.  The parents seemed to be doing a good job raising them when I visited them though.

Now, we'll switch locations to our yard.

You know we had a lot of Baltimore orioles coming to our grape jelly feeder (you can use the blog search box to look up the several posts about it).  The babies are also taught early about our jelly supply.

Same thing with the house finch babies... "Here's where the sunflower seeds are, my dears!"

The woodpeckers teach their babies about our suet...

or they find it on their own, like the young red-bellied woodpecker in the next two photos.  He's in the right place, just needs to find the feeder.

He's getting closer and showing off his first few red feathers on his crown in the next photo.

I love those birds.  They won a contest I did have on here awhile ago for "Best Dressed".

Trying hard not to discriminate between birds I love and those I, well... love less, the next photo is of a Grackle and it's begging youngster.

 The juvenile looks a lot smaller than the adult in that photo, but it's really not.  You can tell in the next photo, taken after they flew up into the tree, that they are actually about the same size.

Our next baby is one that might come down to our feeders in time, but I happened to see it up in our woods.  A fluffy little black-capped chickadee!

The whole family was sputtering about my being nearby, so I didn't stay long.  The babies sure were cute though!

Most babies in the woods are more difficult to get photos of.  I knew where one other chickadee nest, a yellow-throated vireo's nest, and two cedar waxwing nests were this year, but never managed to see the babies.  But I'm glad they were there, and well protected from prying eyes!

Usually a little easier to see are the babies in our swamp.  The Wood Ducks already had their own post here, but you might enjoy seeing them again when they were a little bit bigger.

Well, they are easier to see when they are swimming... not so much when Mama is teaching them to hide in the grass!

Here are some more cute swamp babies: a Canada Goose family...

and one baby a little bit bigger but still cute:

Finally, some barn swallows which decided they would like to live in a swamp, not a barn:

Just waiting for Mama to swoop in and bring them a meal!  Here she comes...

I had a lot of fun watching them from a kayak in a beaver swamp, which was a bit different than their usual location in a barn.  

Last but not least, I'm including a short video of one of our bluebird babies.  I know they had their own post, but this really is "too cute" not to share.  This little bird had done what bluebirds do.... flown down into our lawn to catch a bug.   I had recently mowed the lawn and the baby got a piece of clover and a grass clipping stuck in his feathers.  Here he is trying to preen them out!

Too cute!!!