This and That-August

Not much for birding or any kind of play the past couple of days due most in part to the heat as well as always using a couple of my vacation days to do catch up on things like housework, errands and other things I don't really like to do. I have devised a way to make errands a little more bearable which is to make stops in between to see what's around as I know what birds may be around each place I need to run an errand to. Extreme? Perhaps but it works and gets me out of the house instead of procrastinating which I am very good at doing. ;o)

The picture above was taken at the dump yesterday morning. The Millbury dump is lousy as far as dumps for birds are concerned. I often hear of all of these cool birds (gulls in particular), that will frequent dumps, but I can honestly say, I have never seen one before at our own. We do get a lot of House Sparrows, American Crows and Tree Swallows, but that's about it. Even the tall grass shown above doesn't seem to appeal to the other birds, at least that I am aware of.

Taken this morning after filling up my tank with gas. This is also a place I like to run as it is around a lake and if you get there early enough, you don't have to deal with those obnoxious four wheelers! Despite what the temps say, fall is slowly starting to announce it upcoming arrival as you can see in the picture above.

I went to the Swedish Cemetery in Worcester yesterday after running some errands around Webster Square. I am assuming the feather above once belonged to a Canada Goose as they were everywhere yesterday. I counted 25 of them at one location and then saw about 20 more at another part of the pond.

A Downy Woodpecker having its lunch in the shade.

Mallards were everywhere, trying to escape the brutal heat by huddling together near shallow water where there were plenty of shade trees. They would hear my footsteps and chaos would pursue as the ducks quacked in alarm and tried half hearted attempts to escape the intrusion. It was so hot out that I felt guilty everytime my presence would cause them to leave the shade to go back out toward the hot sun.

The turtles didn't seem to mind it though.

A pretty flower I found along the way. The only herons I saw while there were two Great-blue Herons. There were also about 6 Wood Ducks as well.

St Philips last night after a Dunkin Donuts Turbo run (yes that's a chore! ;o) ). Check out the blue wing on this Wood Duck. It's something I had never really noticed much before.

There were 5 Wood Ducks at St Philips in total last night as well as a dozen or so Mallards.

Taken this morning at my favorite place to run which are the powerlines that go from Millbury all the way to Grafton. I don't get to this place to run that often as I can't do it in the mornings before work because the run takes too long, and the weekends have been early starts as well and often leave to start my day as the sun is starting to rise. This is home to where the Common Ravens nested as well as the Red-tailed Hawks and sometimes I am lucky enough to see or hear them while running which is an added bonus. No birds today really, except for the regular powerline birds.

What are now my favorite places to run which are very rocky paths! I have gotten really good at it and want my practice as I may do a 5K trail race before the season ends so am trying to adapt to running in all conditions.

Stops made along the way including a shot of this Eastern Amberwing???

And a grasshopper who shared the path with me.

Ok folks, now its time for grocery shopping!!! ;o). A Painted Turtle sitting in the sun.

I went along the small ponds waters edge and as I did, I could hear dozens of faint kerplumps as various frogs and toads dashed into the water to escape my feet. One was brave enough to resurface too see who the intruder was.

Dragonfly's were everywhere as well.

And lastly, this lone female Mallard who looked just as sick of the heat as I did. The heat had made both of us lazy so we just sat there staring at the pond and the hazy skies and longing for shade.

Will be headed to South Beach tomorrow w/ the Forbush Bird Club tomorrow and will take lots of pics to share. Take care all!!