Day 108

April 18, 2021

Happy Birthday Grandma O

and many more.

Today was a real Sunday.  I didn't get motivated to go on my ride until after  1:30.  I really watched for birds to day.  It stayed around 50 and there was a breeze.  There was more sun, but not that much.

I actually saw a beaver in the rookery. It was very lovely up there today and I tried to be an observer instead of a poet.    

One marking that may distinguish one heron from another is the strip across their face.   Some have a cap, too, and sometimes the stripe is a mask.

I tried to photograph them leaving and returning to their chosen nest and then describing where their stripe stood on the face. I think I'm going to have to make a chart and sketch some stuff.  

The bird list today:  house sparrow, robins, I think I may have seen a kestrel.  It was the right size, but it was really high up and I couldn't see it well enough to be sure.  I could hear the cardinals at Highland Pond.  Wood ducks, Common merganser, mallard pair, Canada geese, swallows, red winged bbs, red tail way up high, herons, Then I saw about 5 pair of mourning doves.  They had dominated the feeder on Old Albany Rd.  There were jays close by, but only the doves at the feeder.

This is one of the new nests.  It's smaller but has activity in it.  Can't tell if they are still building or if eggs have been laid. 

I love the red of the trees behind the nests and for the first time one can see the distinct pine trees just behind the dead trees.  One gets a clear look through the woods.

I can't detect duck nests though and sometimes it is really evident that I don't know what I am looking at.  I'm missing something due to lack of experience.   

When watching the doves at the feeder I saw in the woods a couple of birds all puffed out and doing some dance with each other.  I got this shot at the end, and they too are doves.  I thought they were bigger, but its just the puffiness that was fooling me.