Sunday, June 22, 2014

Summer time!


    5:00 am comes very quickly but I knew it was necessary if I wanted to be at my favorite spot by 6 am. That first morning light can be amazing, so I was up and out of the house ASAP. I decided to quickly check the heron nests before going to see the avocets. As I was watching the herons, a snowy egret did a fly by......
Not much was going on with the herons, so I hiked over to see the avocets.


Wow! the kid is growing like a weed! and getting even cuter if that's possible.





Dad was close by supervising....










I have no idea how long I spent with the avocets but finally I pulled myself away to see what else was going on. Here is a spotted sandpiper having a scratch.....



Here is a momma sandpiper. I got a quick glimpse of one of her kids before they ran into the reeds. Then she acted like she had a broken wing so I would follow her.....



One of the canada geese family walked by...


I had given up hope on seeing some baby wood ducks this season. Surprise! There was momma wood duck with 7 ducklings! They were a bit far out for a good pic but I was so happy to see them!



Then I saw this robin with breakfast..yum!


I went looking for the cedar wax wings. I did see them but they were too busy to pose for a pic today.
 I walked by a tree full of berries and the robins were chowing down!


I headed back over to see what the herons were doing. Here are the 2 youngsters. They are almost as big as the parents!



This is nest #2. The eggs should be hatching soon....



A few flight shots.....




This is nest #3 still building....




Mom showed up with breakast!



Then she was out of there....






As I am watching the herons, something flew over. It was a black crown night heron!




I started out on lap two and saw momma mallard with some new ducklings.....



I was hoping the wood ducks would be closer in for some good pics and they were!





After enjoying the wood ducks, I doubled back to the avocet area. Another photographer mentioned there were some baby sand pipers there. And there they were......too cute!




Whew! I had spent over 3 hours here and I was a bit tired. But I was driving right by Prospect park where the hood mergansers were seen. So I sucked it up and went to see if I could find them. 
I am one lucky gal. As you drive in, the road goes right by the pond they have been seen in. I saw them from the car, so knew exactly where they were! I have never seen baby hooded mergansers, so I was so happy to get these pics!




I headed home and of course had to stop by the open space offices to see the boblinks. 


And this beautiful butterfly posed so nicely!




Well, that was a very fun morning! Thanks for reading!

No comments:

Post a Comment