I was a working gal on Saturday, so the plan was to go out photographing today. The weather report did not look good. There was a good chance I'd wake up to very cloudy skies with the possibility of thunderstorms throughout the day.
Well, the skies were cloudy but I decided to go for it and drive down to my favorite spot in Lakewood.
I had taken about 10 steps down the path when one of the great blue herons landed in the tree above me. There were some people walking their dog nearby. They apparently had never seen this as they got quite excited....
I wanted to see how the baby avocet was doing, so I hustled over to see them. On the way, this cute mallard duckling caught my eye.....
And the killdeer was nearby too.....
And the spotted sandpiper.....
I found momma avocet. Hmmm.... she seems to have 4 legs. That's because the the little one was tucked in for some mom time!
Eventually the baby came out so I could get some pics! Too darn cute!
I finally pulled myself away to see what else was going on today. Oh yeah! the snowy egret flew in just as I got to the west side of the lake.....
I headed over to see the great blue heron nest and saw this cute baby bunny on the way.
I was almost to the gazebo when I saw a couple of eggs strewned around. They were about the size of a chicken egg. So maybe a duck egg?
I finally got the GBH nest and the kids put on quite the show! They are almost as big as mom!
After watching the GBH, I heard the avocets calling. Ha! the second pair now has 2 baby avocets! They were too far away for good pics, so guess I'll have to pop down soon to get better pics!
Then as I was watching the baby avocets, the snowy egret flew by.....
Yes, more baby mallards hatched out this week!
I started on a another lap of the lake and met up with an older gentleman. He's an avid birder and quite knowledgable. I see him most every week and always say hi. Last week he mentioned he had seen a flock of cedar wax wings and he even told me where but I never did see them them. Well today he said he had seen one cedarwax wing.
So I headed to where he saw him and there he was!
Then another one flew in....
Then they flew to a group of pine trees and they maybe building their nest there. I will keep you posted!
I headed back over to see the avocets. How cute to see the little one doing what dad did!
Then it got really interesting! There are some very large carp( fish ) in this lake. They are at least 2 feet long and maybe more! And yes, they will eat baby ducklings and baby avocets.
So one got too close and daddy avocet went ballistic!
Then he got the little one tucked in. That was the coolest thing I have ever seen!
I spotted daddy mallard and one of his young. This must be one of the ducklings from early this spring. You can see the green coming in on his head!
Here's another batch of ducklings. There are 4 or 5 more not pictured.
The flowers were amazing!
One of the GBH looking for some breakfast....
And finally some turtles got up to start the day...
It was quieting down and the clouds were rolling in. So it was time to head home. Of course I had to stop by the open space offices to see if the bobolinks were around. This handsome guy posed nicely for me.
What a fun morning! But a bummer for Hazel. It started raining just as I got home, so we had to wait out the storm before we headed out to chase that tennis ball!
Thanks for reading!
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