This and That

You know, it's amazing what one can see while doing every day ordinary errands. I was driving to the dump on Tuesday morning when suddenly I could see the outskirts of the hind quarters of a very large bird. At first I thought it was an odd looking Canada Goose until I got a better look at it and realized they were a small flock of Wild Turkeys. I quickly look in my rear view mirror to make sure no one is behind me and then I stop on the side the road and whip out my camera. This is not an easy task to do when you have your seat belt on so I had to get that off, find my camera, adjust settings and try and climb over to the passengers side to start clicking away. I get one photo and then they see me and start walking away real quickly.

I get out of my car at this point and continue to try and focus as they are now running on private property.

Finally they make their way past a car and into the woods. THIS is why my camera goes with me every where I go!

I went to the cemetery today to check on the Heron to see if she was still on the nest and sure enough she was. Her mate showed up after a while too so I am fairly confident to say that it appears as if she will nest there again this spring.

While I was there I met another fellow birder who came over to me and assumed I was at the cemetery for something else. Guess what it was?? Go on I dare you to based on the picture below. ;o)

Why it was a Mandarin Duck of course! I remember seeing one of these birds in my Peterson Field Guide and I thought it was a gorgeous bird. In fact, I thought of it as so pretty I couldn't understand why any would want it on their dinner plate, but different strokes for different folks I suppose.

The birder I met showed me a new area of the wetlands I was not familiar with and there it was hanging around with the Wood Ducks. He explained to me that he was probably trying to get near the female and that is why the male Wood Duck was making his presence known. The Mandarin kept on displaying by splashing in the water and fluffing his feathers in an attempt to entice the female. Now if the birder wasn't there and I had seen the Mandarin do this, I would have no idea why and would have probably thought he was just taking a bath or something. Very cool to learn all of this.

I am actually going on my first field trip this weekend with a local bird club. It's a good way to meet a lot of nice people who have a lot of knowledge on birds and that is exactly what I need right now with spring upon us. I know my backyard birds just fine, but don't know anything about the spring migrants that continue our way each day.

Take care everyone.