Lots of mouths to feed…

I was surprised to find no wood ducks on the pond this morning. I believe that’s the first time since they hatched last week. Perhaps they were on shore somewhere napping, or Mom decided it was time for a road trip, by which I mean a hike down to the river. Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow. Meanwhile, lots of birds are starting to fledge, and hear are a pair of red-winged blackbirds by the pond that were begging Dad for breakfast.

At the river, the osprey was back, or this is another one passing through, but either way I flubbed both chances it gave me to get a nice action shot, and I was left with this blurry image instead.

The red-tailed hawk was back, probably the same bird as yesterday, and it was a bit more accommodating: on the far shore, for sure, but at least parked and in nice sunlight.

The killdeer were making as much noise as ever, but this one paused for a moment so we could have a nice portrait.

The trio of mallard ducklings, their mom, and Karl were all drying out on the far shore after breakfast.

On my way back south, I did find this family of wood ducks still working on breakfast.

Just above the falls was a family of Canada geese with at least sixteen goslings foraging in the river close to the near shore, and here are six of them that must have found a jackpot.

Our favorite fishing great blue heron was below the falls again, and I wasn’t going to even bother with a picture, but it held the fish out for me so tantalizingly that I couldn’t resist.

And then, in the blink of an eye, down the gullet it went.

At the base of stairway eight, I bet there was a brood of chipmunks freshly out of the nest because there were at least four and maybe six of them all scampering around and chasing each other. Here’s the one that stood still just long enough for me to get a picture.

Finally, at the south end, I spotted my first crayfish of the season, but this ring-billed gull had seen it first and called dibs.

Lastly, just as I was about to walk out of the park, this male northern cardinal was frantically trying to find something to stuff into the beak of the little squeaker I could hear in the bushes nearby.