My owl friends: A Big Day at My Favorite Place

Finally, the stars aligned and I headed down to my favorite place today! And let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

Here's the main tree full of great blue heron and cormorant nests!

I was hoping the avocets were back. And within 5 minutes of being there, I heard them calling! Yahoo!

While I was photographing the avocet, a blue winged teal swam by. Oh yeah, it was going to be a very fun day!

The canada goose was showing off. Check out that wing span.....

And then the GBH started putting on a show for me. There are two new GBH nests that they just started working on last Tuesday. I know that because I've gotten to know some of the people that live nearby and they come here most everyday. Rich is quite a knowledgable guy, so always happy to run into him and get the scoop....

In the GBH world, the males go get the nest material and bring it back for the females. These guys were busy!

One of the new nests......

There are still quite a few buffleheads around but they will head north soon.....

After enjoying the GBH, I went looking for the avocets. There were two pairs for sure and maybe three but not sure at this point. They kept flying around which made it hard to keep track of them....hahaha

Here's a great example to show the sex of the avocets......the male has a straight bill and the female has a curved bill.

Oh! They started some courting/mating behaviors but it was a false alarm.....

After watching the avocets, I went back to the GBH. And I saw the craziest thing! This GBH had this huge branch. As he took off, I think his wing knocked the stick out of his mouth.

Well, the GBH that dropped it just kept flying. Another GBH was nearby, so he took a shot at carrying it.....

He gave it the old college try but after a few attempts, he gave up. I have to say I have never seen that before....too funny!

Finally I moved on to the north side and spotted this green winged teal with the reflection!

Mr Mallard swam by and I just love how the light made his beautiful green head pop!

Yes! I was hoping to see the cinnamon teal as I had seen some reports of them at Belmar. Sweet!

More green winged teals were here.....

This kingfisher was hanging around. I was hoping to see him dive in and grab a fish but no luck......

Here's the two pair of avocets together.....

And another pair of green winged teals with reflection...bonus!

Even though they nest in trees, it still looks funny to see these GBH perched on a tiny branch!

I loved watching the geese do this.....

Here's a pair of gadwalls.........

I was thinking about heading home but I saw the avocets were in a good spot of pics. Boy am I glad I stayed! I just got over to them and they decided to do some courting/mating!