Thanks for the extra eyes!

One of the great blue herons, and only one this time, as far as I saw, was back again this morning, and it caught another fish in exactly the same spot as yesterday. You might even think I’m pulling your leg, and that this is just another image from yesterday’s scene, but if you compare the two, I think you’ll notice that I had much better light yesterday. In any case, that is still another tasty-looking fish, and I bet the chicks were just as thrilled as before when that got coughed up back at the rookery.

Meanwhile, right across the river and at the top of the falls, another goose family with some gangly, teenager-looking goslings was busy foraging.

As I continued north along the river, I caught a glimpse of this bald eagle (just as you requested, Jordan. I can see why they are your favorite.) Sadly, this is the last image I managed to capture, despite crawling up the trail on my hands and knees, before it had had just about enough of me and lazily drifted across the river to a perch above the far riverbank.

I am happy to report, however, that once it got to the other side and felt that nice warm morning sun, it decided to stretch out a bit. I’ve seen plenty of cormorants posing this way, and I’m pretty sure herons, although I can’t find a picture right now, but this is the first time I’ve seen a bald eagle do this. I read that birds use this pose to warm up, dry off, or combat parisites. Which do you think it is this time?

While the eagle was otherwise occupied, this green heron below also appeared to be soaking up some sun, …

and this killdeer was busy foraging.

Then I headed back up to the main parking lot to meet Donna, who had shown us the great horned owlet a few weeks ago, and her Sunday morning birding group, which included ace spotter Lisa, crack photographer Jeff, and recent graduate Lou, among many others. All those extra eyes paid off in short order when someone (sorry I didn’t catch who) spotted a black-billed cuckoo. Woo Hoo! I haven’t seen one since 2021.

Once we got back to the beer garden, I continued south, and the group headed east towards the pond. At the south end, an indigo bunting dared me to capture a portrait. It was perched pretty high, so still not the best, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.

I didn’t get any warbler pictures today, even though we did hear and spot a couple. Instead, here’s a Blackbernian from yesterday.

Lastly, this chipmunk must have been enjoying its breakfast so much that it was unwilling to drop it even when it could clearly see me aiming my camera right at it. Ha!