Chuck-Will's-Widow in Bristow, Friday, June 21, our first visit

Chuck-Will's-Widow sitting on eggs

Two Chuck-Will's-Widow eggs

Chuck-Will's-Widow eggs

On Tue, June 25, we visited Bristow again and saw Connette, her daughter Katrina and the Chuck-Will's-Widow on the nest.

Chuck-Will's-Widow. She sat tight the whole time, presumably still on eggs but we don't really know.

Wildflowers

Male Painted Bunting

Rudbeckia and other wildflowers

Connette and Katrina

We saw only eggs and shells on this visit, no Chuck-Will's Widow birds. We were concerned.

On our third visit, Mary wanted to photos of the fire truck.

This fire truck was in service in NYC on 9/11/2001.

Wildflowers

The Chuck-Will's-Widow and one of the eggs were missing.

Mary found this shell on the gravel drive; it was a size similar to the remaining egg, but did not have spots on it, so we weren't sure whether it was the missing C-W-W egg.

We walked around and found this male Painted Bunting in a tree next to the driveway.

We also found a dragonfly.

Dragonfly

Another dragonfly

We drove N on the driveway and Mary noticed several Ebony Jewelwings, a species of broadwing damselfly, along the creek.

Ebony Jewelwing along the creek outside Bristow

Ebony Jewelwing

There were also some sumac bushes beginning to bloom.

A Lark Sparrow flew up into one of the trees along the drive.

Several Barn Swallows were flying around the pond, catching insects and a few of them landed on the power line.

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallows

Some of the Barn Swallows landed on a pokeweed plant growing along the edge of the pond.

Barn Swallows on pokeweed

Barn Swallow

A second Lark Sparrow joined the first one.

As we were leaving, Mary took a photo of the wildflowers near the gate.

This morning, Sunday, July 7, we received a call from Connette & Vike; they had found a chick and two protective parents! As their photos show, the chick already has most of its feathers.

Connette's photo of Chuck-Will's-Widow chick in Bristow, OK

CR's photo of Chuck-Will's-Widow chick

Connette's photo of Chuck-Will's-Widow chick

Connette's photo of Chuck-Will's-Widow chick

Connette's photo of Chuck-Will's-Widow chick

The next day, we went to look for the chick. Coming up the drive, we saw these two birds on the power line. They were only silhouettes, but when we lightened the photos, we found they were young Eastern Bluebirds.

At the site of the nest, we found a broken egg shell.

We found this broken egg shell that looked like it had been eaten by a predator. Given how feathered the chick was in Connette's photos, this made us think the chick had hatched from the first egg, not this one that had been left in the nest.

Broken egg with apparent yolk remains being eaten by ants

Broken Chuck-will's-widow egg

When we walked a little farther east on the driveway, in the direction of where Vike said he had found the chick, this adult bird flew up and landed in a nearby tree, croaking at us.

Adult Chuck-will's-widow, protesting our closeness to its chick

Adult Chuck-will's-widow perched near its chick

Do you see the chick in this photo? It took us several minutes to spot it.

Can you see the chick in the middle of the photo?

A well-camouflaged Chuck-will's-widow chick

From a distance, the Chuck-will's-widow chick seemed to have its eyes closed, but in the cropped image they seem to be open a slit.

Chuck-will's-widow chick

Chuck-will's-widow chick

Chuck-will's-widow chick

Chuck-will's-widow chick

Chuck-will's-widow chick

We left the Chuck-will's-widows and walked the driveway north. The dead tree snags provided cover for several more birds.

There were at least three Bewick's Wrens hopping around in the dead branches.

Bewick's Wren

Bewick's Wren

This Field Sparrow hopped up nearby and sang to us.

There were also a couple of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers chasing each other around the snag.

Another singing Field Sparrow

Field Sparrow

Field Sparrow

This young-looking male Painted Bunting also flew into a nearby tree and sang for us.

Singing male Painted Bunting

We walked on down to the creek where we had seen the Ebony Jewelwings on our last visit. There were 8-10 of them flying and landing on the rocks and sand along and in the creek.

Ebony Jewelwing

Ebony Jewelwing

Male Ebony Jewelwing approaching a female

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings, apparently mating

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings; the female appears to be dipping her abdomen in the water

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings

Male still attending female Ebony Jewelwing

Female Ebony Jewelwing dipping her abdomen in the water, presumably to deposit fertilized eggs, with male hovering overhead

Male and female Ebony Jewelwings

Female Ebony Jewelwing

Ebony Jewelwing wings in the water with male on rock nearby

Walking back up the drive, we found these Cleome-like flowers.

Cleome-like wildflowers

We saw at least four more Field Sparrows.

Mary says she loves thinking of the 9/11 fire truck retiring peacefully among the wildflowers and songbirds.

Some of Connette's wildflowers--at dusk

Pink wildflowers

Wildflowers near the gate

The evening sky near sunset

Looking west at the end of our visit

Connette says that on July 11, Vike saw the baby bird, which flew up to a nearby branch!