I woke up to a perfect day for photographing. It was only 59' when I left the house and that sure felt good. I took a jacket just in case but I did not need it.
I had other things to do today, so I decided to go to my favorite spot and Prospect Park. They are both great places to go as I usually see some cool stuff in a short amount of time.
So I got to my favorite spot around 6:30am and headed over to the gazebo area. I quickly spotted an adult black crown night heron out on the island........
The cormorants were there but I have not seen the great blue herons on their nest. Hmmmmm I wonder if their nest failed. After enjoying the heron, I continued around the lake. I ran into one of my photographer friends and we enjoyed watching a killdeer and some spotted sandpipers. Here is the killdeer......
While we were watching the killdeer, the canada geese family showed up. You can see two of the youngsters and the third one is off to the right of the picture. The youngsters are growing so fast! It's hard to tell them apart from their parents.....
We continued on and I spotted an immature black crown night heron. Neither of us knew much about their life span, so I did some research when I got home. The books say it takes three years for these guys to reach full adulthood. So my best guess is this guy was born last spring( 2012). Pretty darn cool.......
Not far away was the great blue heron hunting for breakfast.......
We had walked around the entire lake when we saw about 4-5 snowy egrets. They were all enjoying their breakfast for a bit and then this guy got a bit crazy and chased all his buddies away.....nice hairdoo buddy!
It was starting to get hot and I still wanted to check out Prospect Park, so I said my good byes and headed to Prospect. I headed towards the cedar wax wing nest first. Along the way I saw a momma mallard with one of her young....
I found the wax wing nest but no one was there. This is the third time I've checked and not seen anyone around. I wonder if they moved to a new nest.....
After looking for the wax wings, I spotted a male wood duck. As you can see, almost all of his amazing breeding colors are gone. He will lose his ability to fly for the next few weeks, so this will help him blend in and stay safe.
A muskrat swam by as I was watching the wood duck....
I walked around bass lake and spotted this female goldfinch with a lovely green worm in her mouth......
I continued on and spotted a black chinned hummingbird.......
My gray catbird friend was also getting food for the "kids".....
As I was watching the catbird, this beautiful yellow warbler showed up and posed for
me.........
It is dragonfly season for sure. They were zipping all around. Finally a couple of them let me grab a few pics......
I also took a look for the owls but no one was around, so I headed back to the car. As I got to the parking lot, I spotted 4-5 barn swallow youngsters. So I waited around to get pics of the parents feeding them. No luck! The babies are big enough that the parents just do a fly by and drop food off way too quick......
As I was watching the swallows, a red tailed hawk circled above. That caused a bit of concern for the swallows but the hawk left without incident......
What a fun day! I'd have to say seeing the male wood duck was the highlight for me!
Enjoy!
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