Most of the warblers had passed through so Mud Lake was back to the "regulars".
Moments after we arrived a black-crowned night heron flew onto a perch
Later on, it, or a second, was very close by the entrance to the main trail.
First on branch at the water's edge and then on a branch of dead tree.
The ducklings had been hatching....
Two week (?) old wood ducklings
An unusual blended family of week (?) old ducklings were swimming about.
A wood duck mum had 9 wood ducklings and 4 common mergansers in her clutch/flock.
One plausible explanation would be that a common merganser laid four eggs in a nesting cavity and then the nesting spot was taken over by a wood duck.
Reviewing the photos and videos, the differences started to showed. The colouration differences especially in the faces, the bills/beaks of the two types were different. The mergansers spent most of their time swimming with their head below the water, the water reaction on their feathers was different - the woodies looked dry most of the time, the mergansers looked soaked.
The mergansers are highlighted by the arrows in the photos below.
Sometimes the four "outliers" went off a little to the side on their own
A mallard flew in to join his friends watching the world from their little spot on the lake
Canada goose on a nest atop a beaver lodge. Her mate was close by on a rock
Canada geese and ducks were swimming around the bridge
Looked like this chickadee didn't realize he had some excellent protein on his lower beak when he came in for some sunflower seeds
A phoebe on a slender branch by the bridge
It is interesting how the birds seem to find little bits of food on the trail
The rabbits were being shy....
After much searching on this and previous visits, a frog finally appeared
It was still early morning, but two painted turtles were up on a log (below and video) , and another swimming
A muskrat appeared out of nowhere and quickly disappeared
A bumble bee collected pollen on its legs while fertilizing the various flowers
Late spring and early summer flowers: fleabane, anemone (2x), lily-of-the-valley, redwood bush, honeysuckle ranging from white, through pink to red, dame's rocket also ranging from white to reddish/pink
The yellow water lilies had bloomed
A very few ferns were still in the developing stage
Some very small caterpillars seemed to enjoy the maple leaves. A short dilapidated log showing woodpecker damage
The various birds that the Merlin app thought it heard during the 3 hour meander
