It looked like a family of adult and sub-adult Banded Woodpeckers, a successful breeding from elsewhere - noisy, ceaselessly moving about, never far from one another but when one left, the rest did too.
And they started their play from almost at the tree base that I almost had to squat to get at them.
And it made a recent memory all the more poignant, of what could have been.
Taking their time to climb after the one that had gone way up.
It was challenging to pinpoint the adult from the junior.
Finally a better take of which is adult and which sub-adult.
Another young one that suddenly appeared to flee immediately at the call of another.
And for curiosity sake, I couldn't help but walked over to check on the old Banded Woodpecker's cavity nest, just in time to see this young Black-thighed Falconet at the entrance.
And surprise, surprise, the parents were around too, an uncommon family presence around this time of the day, to which Juvy subsequently joined.
3 recent fledglings but probably a couple of days old apart - the oldest a male and female, the youngest and freshest, a female (pic right) as she still displayed some dependency traits.
The older sibling flew down for a drink at the pond runoff.
The youngest revealed its tender age going by how it flapped its wings and tried to cling on to familiarity like an older sibling.
Still trying to get close to its elder sibling, only to have its sibling flee.
Left on its own, looking vulnerable but adorable.
And then she spied another familiarity, her male parent, but was also rejected too as typically done by avian parents withdrawing their care once the young has fledged.
Determined to pursue its parent.
Not giving up, and going repeatedly after the parent's beak suggested she still expected to find food off the parent's beak.
There is no firmness indeed like the refusal and resolve of a parent to enable its fledgling to be independent.
And what did the poor fledgling go to for her hunger?
Water, as she flew down to drink at the pond runoff.
Must have seen the other female sibling down there too.
And where did the parent go?
Alone for 'me' time - very much needed going by his tired appearance, more than a few feathers frayed off his forehead.
