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Sunday, July 19, 2015

Being Green is Great, Or Green Heron Comes to Town


                                                                     Green Heron






                                                                        Preening






                                                        A Good Scratch Does Wonders






                                                                         Stretching


                                                                    More Preening


                                                              Red-winged Blackbirds


                                                                     Great Egret


                                                                         Ditto


                                                                       Ditto


                                                                             Ditto


                                                        Immature Scissor-tailed Flycatcher



0650-0905/79-87 degrees F/partly cloudy/15 mph wind gusts

There were actually two Green Herons perched on the snag that I photographed them on.
They are not last year's parents, but the youngsters.  How can I tell this?  One still had a
brown wash on his feathers, and they both still had yellow on their legs.  They are almost
a year old, and next year, they will be breeding birds.  It is possible that the parents are
here on the lake and have another clutch, which will become apparent next month.  You
will be informed if that is the case.

Great Egret graced us once again at The Northern Reaches with these beautiful poses.

The little Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is one of many offspring on the lake this year.  There
are still more on their way to adulthood.

Just on a side note, the Purple Martins appear to be getting ready to leave.  They have been
roosting, and there are many more than I thought.  There were 27 on the east side of the lake
today, but other people have observed up to 45, I believe.  They have done an exemplary job
on keeping down the flying pests.  They will do better next year if the city is able to clear
out the House Sparrows.

I'm also hoping that mowing along the lakeside berms will be kept at minimum, as well, for we
have not had many nesting Killdeer.  Their eggs were mowed over, since they nest on the ground.

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