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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Agitated Herons!

Don’t know what was going on today….but before we get into it I’m going to post this picture that I took this morning…

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I took it because this was the first Hooded Merganser I’d seen so far this season (the duck with the white spot on the head); it wasn’t until I downloaded it that I realized there was an American Wigeon in the background and a male Gadwall to the right….so a good selection of some of the ducks that are regulars, but not as common as say the Mallards and Green Wing Teal.

Now back to today’s matter of interest…

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It was another beautiful day, not much in the way of Eagles but probably a hundred or so assorted ducks in this area….as we continued our walk we could hear some really agitated birds….mainly Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer (always slightly hysterical) and Heron…..

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We had just walked past the viewing platform when a Great Blue Heron flew in and landed on it!

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We tip toed back until we had a good line of sight and I got these pictures…

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Notice in this one there is another Heron in flight in the background and the whole time this was going on the Yellowlegs which had been in the bay beside the viewing platform were shrieking their alarm call…several Bald Eagles bolted out of the Eagle tree, although a couple stayed and ducks took off out of the bay but the smaller birds, Towhee and Robins that were busy eating the last of the choke cherries in the near by bush weren’t the least bit concerned – it seemed to be a ‘shore bird thing’

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The dispute, or what ever it was continued as we reached the log bay…if you look closely there are two black specks flying….those were another couple of Heron….

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I’ll toss in one more Heron picture….this one cropped, because you just don’t get that many opportunities to get pictures this close!

On our way back home every duck that had been enjoying themselves along the edge of the grasslands had disappeared – the reason – someone had walked right along the edge of the grass instead of staying back on the trail.

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