Environment:
Start Time: 6:40 AM Temperature: 63 degrees Sky: Haze filtered sunshine few clouds pleasant breeze
More intense wildfire haze was present this morning but I’m not ready to say that was a completely bad thing. Conditions this morning were basically the same as they were yesterday but the haze had a mitigating effect on the radiant heat of the sun making walking much more comfortable. All the same I can do without the fires. Birding was not too bad either. I spied my Mississippi Kite in its favorite tree again this morning and I managed to snap a portrait. Today’s featured image (above) is a Blue Jay who was quite distant which is why the cropped image is a little iffy. Pretty, though. I have been keeping an eye on the Barn Swallow nest near the fishing pond and snapped the image below. Mom (I say Mom because I was born in the 1950s) has been on the nest for a couple of weeks now and I have to be pretty stealthy when I approach so as not to disturb her. Obviously I was not stealthy enough judging from the dirty look I am receiving. Below is a sleeping Great Horned Owl who was zonked out in the morning sunshine. I got pretty darn close and sleeping beauty here did not twitch a feather. Must have been a tough night.
Sightings:
Birds: Canada Geese, Mallards, Starlings, Robins, Common Grackle, Osprey, Swallows, Barn Swallows, Mourning Doves, Eastern Kingbirds, Bullock’s Oriole, Woodpecker, Mississippi Kite, Blue Jay, Western Kingbirds, Flycatcher, Red-winged Blackbird, American Kestrel, Killdeer
Critters: Cabbage Butterfly, Prairie Dogs, Squirrel, Mule Deer
Gear: Nikon D5600, 55-300mm
