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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Sunday sightings

AB and I took a walk on Sunday and had some great sightings, including a lot of nest-building.

The first bird we saw wasn't a bird at all, however:
This guy was hawking for insects for the entire five or so minutes we watched him, despite the daylight. That's the second time we've seen a bat flying in the daytime over a creek; I guess they do that?

Here's one of the first nests we saw:Don't see it? How about now:That's a Mallard nesting in a tree! Not very common, but I guess it does happen sometimes. I'd hate to be a nestling in that family taking my first step out of the nest! It's a doozy!

There were little bits of nesting material scattered around the tree:and it looked like at least one egg was deemed not up to snuff:
I thought it might've fallen out, but the cavity looked pretty secure.

We also found this guy sleepin' it off in the creek:

Here's another builder:That's a Black-capped Chickadee digging out a good home, but I didn't manage to capture Mrs. (or Mr.? who digs?) BCCH standing nearby inspecting the work and tapping her foot impatiently.

We also saw a bunch of a Yellow-rumped Warblers who refused to sit still and be photographed, but mixed into that flock I found this:Black-and-white Warbler -- finally a half-way decent photo for my lifebird photos file!

I had a life-flower for the day as well:Dutchman's Breeches! Finally! I had thought the flowers would be bigger but they're quite small. Another beauty:Purple Trilliums, which were really taking that "nodding" thing to the extreme:Must've been an "end-of-day-I'm-tired" thing; I'd never seen one drooping like that.

My second life-flower, Wild Ginger:Nice!

Finally, I was able to ID this scary-looking tree from hell using my new National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees:Honeylocust.

Nothing sweet about that tree, man.

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