Patricia's Birds and Nature Photos: A Quiet Weekend

With the Big Week down in Ohio I decided to just go to my usual spots. A stop at LEMP, down to Haggerman Road to see if I can catch a Savannah Sparrow, a Horned Lark and whatever else might be in the field. On my way down Jefferson - as I drive past the quarry I see a nest resting on a power line. As I get closer I can see a head popping up from the nest, an Osprey. On the other side of the road her mate eating a fish.

I continue on to Haggerman and the off to Reaume and Roberts Road. No activity in the little driveway on Reaume so I headed down to the gate at the end of Roberts Road. There I parked the car and walked down the little road and watched what ducks that were out there and the Forster Terns flying and diving into the water to grab a catch. There was a Song Sparrow that sits in the tree right there at the gate. Poking through the yellow foliage you can spot something yellow moving. He's camouflaged really well but eventually you can see the red stripes of the Yellow Warbler. In a tree, very high up sits a bird singing, the bird isn't clear for me from the ground so I try to grab a couple of shots. They weren't very good shots but they were good enough to identify it as a second year male Baltimore Oriole. With nothing else happening I decide to head over to LEMP.

There was a lot of chatter on the trail by the Museum. A couple of Downy Woodpeckers building a nest trying to keep a House Wren out of the tree. A couple of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers diligently putting their nest together. At first when I saw this bird land in the tree it just looked like a knot in the fork of the branch but as I walked around the tree I could see it clearly was a nest.

After walking around the trail I took the short path back to where I saw the Downy Woodpeckers. I watched both of them fit into a hole that looked like it was only the size of a quarter.