Recent Photos

Here are a few images from a recent early morning trip to the pond. I wonder if the swan ever gets restless or lonely. You would think she would want to be with others of her kind. I knew of a Sandhill Crane that spent several years alone locally and seemed perfectly content to have it that way. You see the white feather over on the right? She swam over to it, picked it up, dropped it after examining it and swam off. Is she bored or what?

I happened to see one of the Black-crowned Night Herons fly the length of the pond and land in a tangle. I'm not going to be the one to suggest their circadian clock might be off and they should be sleeping in the daytime. I do think they are active until about mid morning or so.

Almost every time I have been to the pond, I see a Green Heron or two, but I have yet to see them at a very close distance. They have a rather loud one-note squawk which is often my first indication they are near. I may do a blog in the near future on them.

It wasn't close, but this Red-bellied Woodpecker caught my interest on two visits. On both, I saw it land on this same dead tree and, when I looked closely, both times it had something round in it's bill. I would guess a nut of some kind, but it is too early in the season. In any case, both times it was heading in the same direction which I imagine is a tree cavity with a young family of chicks to feed.

Many of the male ducks are beginning to look raggedy as they molt into their nonbreeding colors. The beautiful green crest is gone as well as most of the other bright ornamental breeding colors. Even the red around the base of the bill has disappeared on this male. They reacquire their breeding colors again around October.

It isn't too difficult to figure out when a field trip has been fairly uneventful. I come back with off-topic photos of other things that catch my eye. Often, it is because of the way the light is being cast.