Little Critter Day

I saw plenty of big birds this morning; herons, egrets, storks, and even about a dozen spoonbills at the Ackerdijkse Plassen; but they were all either too far away or just didn’t want to pose today. Luckily, these little characters were willing and able to pick up the slack.

This first one is another great tit, whom we’ve seen a few times before, but never in a pose quite so darling, eh?

Next is a female chaffinch. We’ve seen a few males, but I believe this is our first female (or immature male whose blue head feathers are on backorder).

This next one is a little harder to identify because its plumage is a bit drab to start with, and then it is all puffed up for preening. In any case, I’m going to go with a Eurasian reed warbler splurging on a tree branch this morning instead of sticking with the reeds along the canal below .

Meanwhile, at water level, this frog, my guess is a marsh frog (Pelophylax ridibundus), was uncharacteristically tolerant of me looking its way. They usually sink like rocks if and when we make eye-contact.

When I saw this dragonfly, I thought it was a common green darner, like the ones I see in Estabrook, but now that I can study the picture, the pattern of black on the blue tail isn’t quite right, so I’m gonna go with a southern migrant hawker (Aeshna affinis) instead.

Finally, here’s another speckled wood butterfly, like the ones I saw at the beach back in July.

Lastly, this one’s not quite so small, but still smaller than a mallard, and we haven’t seen a tufted duck in a while.

PS. Happy Birthday, Honey!