May 23, I took my camera with me to the nest. I expected that the young birds would be out by that time, and that the old birds would be flying in and out with food, giving me many opportunities for photography. I looked in the nest and saw that every egg was hatched, so I proceeded to set my camera about two feet away, when who should appear on the ground-glass but one of the parents, with a mouth full of struggling little green caterpillars. She, if it were the female, looked at the camera a second or two, then, without another thought of the outside world, hopped down into the nest and fed her young.
CHIPPING SPARROW APPROACHING ITS NEST
The camera arranged, I was just about to seek concealment behind a bush, when both of the parent birds flew near the nest with food. I stood very still. One of the birds, the male, I think, stopped too, but the other one flew right into the nest. She soon came out, and stood on the very point I had the camera focused. Very slowly I put my hand up to the shutter-release, expecting the bird to fly any minute; but at last I reached it and, click, I had my first ‘close up’ bird picture. And it was the best one, too; for although I took six or seven others, they did not turn out so well as the first one.
CHIPPING SPARROW BROODING
May 31, I went to take the pictures of the little Chickadees, but found that they were still too small to handle. I was not able to go again, but my friend reports that the whole family of eight young left the nest, and were very healthy-looking little birds. This nest was situated on the edge of a woods at Verona, N. J.
During the two weeks’ vacation at Fredon, Sussex Co., N. Y., I found twelve nests, a list of which follows. All but three were found on a farm.
One Robin’s nest, containing one egg. Deserted for unknown cause.
Two Field Sparrows’ nests. Each contained young, almost full-grown birds. One nest had an unfertile egg in it.