A few favorites from CJ Brown and Old Reid today.
One of my favorite parts of my outtings is helping new wildlife watchers to see the natural world. It was fun showing a couple of hikers the beauty of the bird world!
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| Wood Duck Family |
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| Northern Parula |
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| American Redstart Warbler |
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| Orchard Oriole |
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| House Wren |
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| Northern Water Thrush |
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| Northern Oriole |
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| Turkey Vultures |
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| Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers making more gnatcatchers |
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| Song Sparrow taking home a beakful to the chicks |
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| Great Crested Flycatcher |
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| Yellow Warbler |
There was an unusual visitor to Old Reid on Monday.....a Snowy Egret!
While not a rare sighting, even during migration, Snowy Egrets don't often stop here in Clark County, so it was a treat to watch this one in our own local park.
Wind storms, snow storms and other weather activities sometimes drive birds like this Snowy Egret off of their regular migration routes. Here's the map showing their regular and migrational ranges from Cornell's All About Birds site:
Yesterday, the Snowy perched on logs and waded in the shallows at Old Reid. It tried to hang out with the resident Great Blue Heron. When the Great Blue flew to another area of the ponds and landed on a shallow rock bar, the Snowy Egret followed and tried to stay with it. The Snowy Egret's much smaller size can be seen here.
We checked last evening, and did not see the Snowy at Old Reid....no doubt, it is off to join up with fellow Snowys heading to migrational grounds!
FYI...today is #batappreciationday
When David and I were doing our Buck Creek drive through on Wednesday night at sunset, I pulled over at the Coyote Run parking area to watch a bat flitting over the parking area. It seemed to stay directly over the road and asphalt.
After watching a few minutes, we figured out that the sky above the road was filled with insects (likely midges). Because the road absorbed the heat, the air over the road was apparently warmer; creating a feast for the bat. A second bat joined, and I did grab a few shots. Not the best pics, but you get the idea.
The first pic is a collage of the best, and the separate original pics are also posted. The last pic is focused on the bugs that the bats were eating.
Disclaimer.....I'm a fan of bats as long as they stay up there where they belong! When I got out of the car to photograph them, I was hoping that they wouldn't come down to visit me! LOL.
David, Gracie and I did a little hike around Old Reid and CJ Brown today. Some of our looks....
David was teaching CPR this morning, so Gracie and I hiked and watched birds....here's some of our finds.
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| Northern Parula Warbler |
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| Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher |
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| Song Sparrow |
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| Northern Parula Warbler |
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| Northern Parula Warbler |
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| Mrs. Wood Duck |
