Three weeks later into June, different things catch one's eye
Both a great blue heron and an egret were playing hard to get farther away than preferred...
Two mallard males glistening in the sun
There is one spot where if a green heron is present, it will likely be found.
It happens 1-2 times per year.
This visit was one of those times. Although the green heron was hiding behind some brush.
A non-nesting pair of Canada geese had made themselves to home in a spot where we regularly come to see turtles, wood ducks and the occasional heron. The male (?) rose to gently challenge us, the female never moved even when I moved close to get the head shot.
A wood duck family (only wood ducklings - see the early June PhotoStory) were swimming by the culverts.
A dead tree hosted a catbird this visit. It was constantly calling, but not it's cat-like call.
A kingfisher had been making several dives from tree branches. Sometimes coming up with a fish (first photo), sometimes not. Its dive was too fast for me to catch it .
Both white and yellow water lilies were blooming. Some of the white ones were damaged. The wood ducks seemed to go after the yellow ones, although I wonder if it is just the bugs on the waterlilies. What has been going after the white, I don't know.
A raccoon had returned to an old haunt for a snooze in a damaged tree trunk. We wondered if this squirrel was a cross with a skunk given the white stripe(s)
A number of slugs were crawling (if that is the term) the trail . Not sure why as the ground wasn't particularly wet.
The dot-tailed whitefaced dragonflies were looking after the mosquitos. Spiderwebs were spun in hopes of a good catch.
Wild rose, bindweed/morning glory (2x), St John's wort, bird's foot trefoil, anemone, daisy, creeping jenny
A maple leaf fallen into a soup of duck weed
It's been damp enough this summer to foster mushrooms
Sunlight catching an old rotting stump
Backlit water lily leaf and a burdock leaf
A painted turtle climbed a mountain
Don't know if it is the same bird from last year, but a red-winged blackbird was trying to sort out who was in the car mirror
