My owl friends: The Joint Was Jumpin!

It's pretty easy for me to get up early when I'm going to do something fun! The plan for this morning was to head down to my favorite place. I knew it would be fun and I was excited to shoot with my new lens!

So I was out the door by 5:30am. Hazel and the kitties love it too as they get an early breakfast.....

I was full of anticipation as to what I'd see today! I quickly spotted a male wood duck but he was not in a good spot for a pic. But this cormorant was happy pose for me!

Then I went looking for the avocets. I found them but the kingfisher caught my eye first!

Once the kingfisher took off, I concentrated on the avocets. I took a gazillion pics but I'll just share one for now.....

Finally pulled myself away from the avocets and continued on. This cute female red winged black bird was having a drink....

I checked the back pond and looked for the swainson's hawks but no one was around. So I started my second lap.

Excellent! Now the wood ducks were in a nice place for pics!

These two dudes are hoping to be her mate..

I continued on and finally saw the spotted sandpiper! So damn cute!

The great blue herons were very busy!

And then a snowy egret showed up!

I went back to check on one of the swallow nest boxes. This flicker was perched on it and the swallows were not happy! They kept dive bombing her until she left.

I was headed back to the main pond and saw this female mallard fly into this tree!

And these two dudes were fighting it out for a cute gal duck....

He's happy he won!

There were quite a few female buffleheads around!

I was chatting with my friend Neal and we spotted something flying by. Neal thought it might be a swainson's hawk and he was right! Their nest from last year has blown away, so they are gonna have to rebuild!

Finally I headed over to see if the cooper's hawks were around. Score! Both the male and female were hanging out. The female had some yummy baby bunny for breakfast! She was quite calm and allowed me to photograph her while she was eating.

But the male was a bit more territorial! At one point I must have gotten to close to the nest and he dive bombed me! I apologized and moved away quickly!