Sunday Fun day

 Yahoo! Finally got down to my favorite spot this morning! I had high hopes of seeing the avocets, the swainson hawks, the coopers hawks and maybe some wood ducks too...

I started the loop and saw this cute couple! They are northern shovelers. They winter here and will soon head north to raise their young......

I hadn't gone to much further and spotted this handsome green winged teal. Oh yea, I could tell it was gonna be a good day!

Here's the handsome female green winged teal..

Yup, everyone was pairing up, including this pair of lesser scaup....

The buffleheads are still around and I was lucky enough to get a decent pic!

As I was taking pics of the bufflehead, I spotted a pair of avocets! Yahoo! I was so happy to see them. Last summer was not good for the avocets. They had some young but then they all disappeared so I never got to see them grow up. So hopefully this summer will be better. There is nothing cuter than young avocet chicks!

Avocet trivia....the females have curved beaks and the males have straight beaks.

I finally pulled myself away from the avocets and  spotted a pair of shovelers. And you know I love these reflection shots!

Here's a female gadwall....

and here's the male gadwall......

 
A tent? I have never seen that before and it's not in the best spot. There is a homeless guy that I see once in awhile so many it's his house....

I went to look for the swainson's hawks but there was no sign of them. So I circled back to check out the great blue herons. They were quite busy working on their nests.

Besides seeing lots of wildlife around here, there are also some very nice people that live nearby. They are a wealth of knowledge and are happy to share. So while I was watching the GBH, a fellow named Rick noticed a yellow headed black bird. He called me over and we had a great time trying to get decent pics of him.

There are plenty of geese around so I don't often take pics of them but I really liked this view...

I was just about ready to go home and saw Neal. He also lives in the neighborhood and is an expert birder. I asked about the swainsons and he said he had not seen them yet. But he  shared that the cooper's hawks were nesting in an old nest from two years ago. That is a great location for pics, so I checked it out. I quickly spotted one of them! I tried to get some decent pics but my telephoto lens jammed up. Damn! It had been acting up but it was still functional until this moment!

So I headed home and got Hazel dog. Then we stopped at Mike's Camera to see about getting it fixed. Being Sunday, they didn't have a tech there, so I'll stop by tomorrow and get it checked out......


Thanks for reading!