What a fun day I had at my favorite place! So grab your favorite beverage and get comfortable! I have lots of pics to share today.....
I was up and out the door by 5:00am. It was time to go down to my favorite place and see what was going on! It had been two weeks, so I was hoping to get some great pics!
First thing I did was go check on the cooper's hawks. Dad appeared and dive bombed me a few times to let me know who was boss.
He calmed down but then the sprinklers went on, so I waited for them to turn off so I could check on the youngsters. It took a few minutes for me to see that there were 4 young cooper's hawks! Wow! It's gonna be a fun summer seeing these kids grow up!
So I'm watching the kids in the nesting tree and one of them decided to fly to a nearby tree! He probably flew at least 40-50 feet! It wasn't graceful but he got it done! Two weeks ago these guys were little fuzz balls and now they are checking out their flying skills! Amazing!
I finally pulled myself away knowing they'd be around later. So I headed for the avocets. Along the way I saw this killdeer. They have youngsters running around but they were way too fast to get any pics of them.
But somehow I managed to grab a pic of a spotted sandpiper chick!
I quickly found dad avocet. You can tell by his beak which is fairly straight. The female has a curved beak.
I only saw one chick. There were two of them two weeks ago, so I have a feeling one of them met an untimely demise. This one sure has grown in a short amount of time.
A male mallard swam by. He's definitely in a molting phase.....
And here are some very cute mallard ducklings.....
I continued along the north side and I heard a familiar sound! Yahoo! Mrs wood duck and three youngsters.......
I'm not sure what this youngster was eating but it was damn big! Best guess is it was a crayfish.....
A bit farther down the trail I spotted an immature black crown night heron! Sweet! I have not seen one all year!
And then I spotted an adult. Likely it's mom!
And not much further was another immature heron!
While I was enjoying the herons, I caught a glimpse of color and realized there were male wood ducks! Very cool! As you can see they look a bit scruffy. That's because all male ducks go through a molting phase this time of year.
I continued on to check on the swainson's hawks. No one was around so I circled back around the back pond. This frog was peeking out at me!
A saw some movement in the trees.....sweet! A female downy woodpecker! She had a youngster flitting around but was way too fast for me to grab a pic.
I finished the loop and headed back to check on the cooper's hawks. On the way, I ran into my friend Neal. He shared with me that there are 5 cooper's hawks chicks! Holy crap!
So I went over to their nest for more pics! A few were in the nest tree but this one was in the dead tree nearby.....
This one looks like the hawk version of grumpy cat! Ha!
I started loop two. Was fairly quiet until I got back to the wood duck area. Beside the three dudes, now there was a female and lots of ducklings......
Again, I pulled myself away to go see if the swainson's were around. Along the way, this robin posed with breakfast for the kids.....Yum!
No swainson sightings today. Their nest is tucked deep in a very tall cottonwood tree, so unless they are out hunting, I'm not gonna see them until the kids hatch.
Oh well, I headed back to enjoy the wood ducks. This time I also saw the other female wood duck. She has the three ducklings and the other wood duck has eight ducklings.....
I was hoping to get a pic of the heron catching something but no luck.....
I finally pulled myself away to see what else was going on.This snowy egret put on quite the show! I had not seen this before. Normally they search for food by shuffling their feet along to stir up yummy things. But this one was dancing around quite a bit. Reminded me of Native Americans doing a ceremonial dance......
I did not know I got this water droplet pic until I downloaded the pics at home! Score! Pure luck but I'll take it!
Of course I had to get more pics of the avocet chick...
And dad too. I never saw the female, so I hope she's alright....
I stopped by the gazebo out the way out and saw this pelican! Now I have seen pelicans around but never here! Maybe they'll start hanging out here......
Finally the turtles got up....
And I had to check on the cooper's hawks one last time....
Dad dive bombed me a few more times. I attempted to get a pic but he was way too fast....
Wow! What an amazing morning! I ended up spending 4 hours there this morning! There was so much to see and the light was perfect! Some light cloud cover was perfect for filtering the harsh sunlight!
Thanks for reading!
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