As I'd mentioned in my previous post, last week at Lakeland I witnessed a brutal attack by a pair of Wood Storks on a juvenile stork. I received a response to my query about this behavior from Dr.Jim Rodgers, Avian Research Program Leader with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission:

"The 2 photos appear to show 1 or 2 adult storks attacking a 4-5 week old nestling. From the images it is impossible to determine the relationship between the individual birds. However, occasionally older nestlings wander from their nest into the territories of adjacent birds and this is not tolerated by the adults as they will protect both the integrity of the territory and the nest contents."

"Also, sometimes nestlings "mistake" other adults for their parents when the latter birds return to their own nests. These nestlings approach the adult and beg for food. However, adults will not feed nestlings that are not their own; for obvious reasons they must feed only their own young. These interloping nestlings usually pay the price of getting too close to a non-parent bird."

"By the way, this also is the case for younger nestlings trespassing onto the territory of older nestlings of an adjacent nest--these older nestlings will defend their nest from other nestlings too. In most instances, the injuries appear to be limited to some cuts and the offending bird returns to its own nest. Occasionally, a bird falls out of a tree."

I feel a little more at ease thanks to Dr. Rodgers reply because I was quite certain that I had been witnessing a brutal killing that I could not come to grips with - though it still makes me a little queasy when I look at the images. The adults seemed to be relentless and did not stop until the younger bird appeared to stop moving around (plus there looks to be another one about the same age that is down in the nest and I don't think it moved throughout the entire episode). It is always great to be able to contact an expert like Dr. Rodgers when we encounter something in Nature that we don't understand and I thank him for his quick reply.

In other news, Roxie and I are currently in a great little rural RV park south of Savannah, Georgia (Lake Harmony RV Park near Townsend). I was outside a few minutes ago and the frogs are making quite a ruckus while this afternoon I was happy to see or hear a lot of birds around. Close to our site a Blue Jay was feeding a just-fledged youngster, a Red-bellied Woodpecker kept flying back and forth and was problably tending to young of its own, Northern Parulas were singing nearby while a Yellow-throated Warbler landed in a tree right over our heads and sang for us. Northern Cardinals were around as were Mockingbirds, a couple of Great-crested Flycatchers, and two Spotted Sandpipers were foraging at the edge of the lake. Tomorrow I will be venturing out to Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in search of Painted Buntings (and whatever else I might find).