Sunset at Sterling Peat

After reading about Kevin B's sighting of the Little Blue Heron at Sterling Peat last night, Alan and I decided to head over there to see if we could spot it as this is a biggie for my target list for Central MA. Yes I know I always say this, but the Little-blue is different as I have had recurrent dreams about going out to find one in our county and the dream always ends in failure just as it did this evening. Yes this is what I dream about folks, not Prince Charming and not about winning the lottery, nope I dream about Little-blue Herons instead. Freud would have a field day with that I'm sure!
Anyhow, Tom P and Bart K were there too with the same goal so we all headed over to a location where we saw two Great Egrets in hopes that the Little-blue would makes its way over to their snag but it never did.
While we never did see the Little-blue Heron, we did see a couple Nighthawks, many Barn Swallows, tons of European Starlings and a flock of American Robins going to roost somewhere. We were also treated to a gorgeous sunrise that has been the norm this week with the fabulous weather we have had recently.
The best picture of the Great Egrets I have. I actually took out my old camera the Kodak Easy Share and used that tonight as I was experimenting with both digiscoping and digibining and while I took quite a few photos, they came out kind of lousy as I totally forgot the settings to my old camera and have to fiddle around with it some to get it to my liking. I can tell once I figure that out, I will get a lot of fantastic photos even with my binoculars which will be great as I have been considering forking out some more dough for a better camera but would rather wait until Christmas if I can.
Before heading over the Sterling Peat, we went up to the mall in Millbury to see if we could do some nighthawking. All was quiet tonight as far as these birds were concerned, but we were treated to seeing three Ring-billed Gulls "hawking" for insects which is something I have never seen close up before so it was a treat to watch.
One of the nicest things about being up at such a high elevation at the mall is that sometimes you can get really decent looks and pictures of birds in flight as they are often at the same level as you are and you are above the tree line in most cases.
We also saw a large number of Red-winged Blackbirds hawking for incests which was fascinating to watch because I have never seen them do this before.
And I leave you with a shot of some of the downtown Worcester birds taken at lunch. I now go to the top level of the garage with my bins and search around areas that I normally don't get to w/ my camera and found this sight so got a little closer for a picture. An urban shot of Rock Pigeons!.

Take care all. I will not be posting this weekend as I am headed to York Maine for the weekend but am planning on birding so will take photos and post them when I return. Have a great Labor Day Weekend everyone.