Turkeys in the Park!

I was delighted this afternoon when I rounded a corner and found a Wild Turkey Hen with her 5 chicks!

This may be the hen that spent a lot of time in our backyard during the winter. Male Wild Turkeys provide no parental care. Newly hatched chicks follow the female, who feeds them for a few days until they learn to find food on their own. (Cornell Lab, All About Birds)

This little chick was busy eating plants and bugs and enjoying an afternoon walk with its siblings!

While visiting the Point Lands, I watched a pair of Tree Swallows defend their nest box from a male House Sparrow. House Sparrow sometimes evict other birds from nest holes, including Eastern Bluebirds, Purple Martins and Tree Swallows. House Sparrows were introduced into Brooklyn, New York in 1851. By 1900 they had spread to the Rocky Mountains and are now common across all of North America except Alaska and Northern Canada. (Cornell Lab, All About Birds)

A Furrow Orbwearver worked diligently to remove cotton clogging his web that fell from nearby Cottonwood Trees. I watched him separate and drop 2 cotton balls!

It must be hard to catch flies if your web is full of cotton! Spiders use a lot of 

energy to spin a web so these orb weavers may have a tough time finding food!