Heron Park, part 3

[tigertoy]

Now we go across the road and investigate the heron nests.  And find some other things too.

To set the stage, here's the rookery as seen from across the road.  Doesn't look like much at all; you can't see the nests at all without magnification.



Here I've crossed the road and also zoomed in a bit.



And zoomed in a bit more.



Here's some more pictures of the herons on the nests.







I said there was something else besides the herons.  A pair of red-headed woodpeckers have a nest.  Catching both birds on the tree was just cool.  In the second shot, closeup, the bird looks quizzical, I find it amusing.





We were just about to leave when I had another personal triumph:  a pileated woodpecker!  Ironically enough, I've actually caught glimpses of pileated woodpeckers several times since I've been taking pictures, but I've never been able to photograph one, and I think of it as being a bigger deal than the red-head.  In the second of these shots, he turns his head sideways, looking funny.





This bird wasn't so helpful as to actually get close to me, mind you, but he did put on a good show of flying from tree to tree, and I took a bunch more pictures as he did.  Here's a couple shots where he's almost at ground level on two different trees.





Finally, for a bit of humor, when I stopped after crossing the road, near the bluebird nest box that's visible in the first picture, I realized that there was a bird using the nest box.  And with the sun shining, it was a blue bird, but it wasn't the Eastern Bluebird, it was another tree swallow!

Comments

[ntrlstgrl.livejournal.com]

Very cool...I saw four herons flying over town as I was on my way to work this morning...having a sunroof in my car is occasionally a BAD thing. Never mind a cell phone as a distraction...I get distracted by birds!

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Did you happen to get any pictures of the PIWO a-wing?

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Nope. Maybe I'll get lucky next time.