It was already 60' when I left the house at 5:25am. Oh my, gonna be a hot one today! I wanted to wear shorts but pants were more practical for walking through high grasses,etc.
Of course I had to go down to my favorite spot( Belmar lake) to see how everyone is doing.
Believe it or not...this is the baby avocet! He is almost the same size as mom and dad!
I also spotted the other avocet family. They are still hanging around the island and I only
saw one chick. Hopefully the other 2 are still around.
I had only been seeing one snowy egret but today there were about 5 of them. They were flying all over the place as I walked around the lake today. Always so beautiful to see!
I went looking for the wood duck family but I did not see them. So I continued on and spotted another snowy doing some fishing.....
And in a nearby tree, a young swallow waited to be fed!
I also looked for the cedar wax wings but had no luck. So I ended the loop at the heron/ cormorant island. Just as I got there, a young cormorant was pestering mom for some food! I could just hear him " Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom!"
The young herons in nest #1 are doing great!
And below the herons, 2 sand pipers were defending their territory!
This is momma in nest #2. She got up briefly to stretch. Hoping to see chicks soon!
One of the herons in nest #1 got very active! I wonder if it's much longer before he/she leaves the nest.
I love seeing the cormorants do this. Very Adams Family looking! Even though they are water birds, they are not very water proof and need to dry their wings,so they can fly....
I started on my second lap and still needed to see the baby sand piper. I almost missed it cause it has doubled in size since last week! At first I thought it was one of the parents from a far. So cute!
I found momma mallard and her 2 ducklings tucked in for a nap....
And finally the wood ducks showed up! There are six ducklings now and they are looking good!
Sand pipers are mostly shore/ground birds, so it was a surprise to see this one perched in a tree....
It was getting pretty toasty hot, so I decided to head home. But I was driving right by Prospect park, so I had to check on the hooded mergansers. I did not spot them where they had been last week, so I decided to do a loop since I was here.
I got to Tabor lake and there was a wood duck family!
And there were all these flowers that the bees loved! I spent some time there attempting to get a bee in flight......
Love the butterflies.....
And then I found a patch of wild sweet peas! So beautiful!
And a moth flew in to enjoy too!
I got back to the parking lot and spotted the merganser family! They were having some breakfast of crayfish...so cool to watch them dive and come up with food!
There was huge flock of geese. Here are some young goslings....
And here's an older gosling....
The 4th of July is Friday which means I have a 3 day weekend coming up. Yeah, more time to get out to photograph!
Thanks for reading!
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