Goodbye Lake Nelson

Black Crowned Night Heron



Barn Swallows


Cedar Waxwing


Gray Catbird


Tufted Titmouse with a peanut


Chipmunk


Well, this is really it. We fly to California at 7:40am tomorrow. In between packers, car transport and movers, we got in some backyard birding. One new discovery this week was the barn swallows feeding juveniles. Barn Swallows almost never land in our yard, but we had juveniles in trees being fed by adults catching the mosquitoes on the lake. Cedar waxwings are infrequent visitors but they were out on the lake catching insects as well. The night heron flew by and landed on the gate by the dam. We took a walk down and saw him on a log over the stream and then higher in a tree. The catbirds are finishing the last of our jelly and the titmouse took our last peanut.

Adios and Vaya con Dios

Black-crowned night heron

White-breasted nuthatch

Fledgling Red-bellied Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Carolina Chickadee

Northern Cardinal

We are joyfully moving back to California at the end of the month and are busy preparing, so this is likely to be our last post (unless we see the flicker babies that the mother is caring for). The weather was nice yesterday so we had dinner outside, and we were happy that many of our bird friends came by as if to wish us farewell.

We have started a new blog, California Birds. Right now, it mostly contains photos from our trips to California, but we'll post occasionally once we get settled.

Spring is here: The Night Heron has returned early

Black Crowned Night Heron 

Titmouse 

Robin 

The night heron has returned from his winter vacation. He's early this year. The earliest we've seen him in prior years was April 1.

Black Crowned Night Heron grooming

Black Crowned Night Heron


We've taken enough photos of this night heron standing, waiting for fish. We are moving on to his morning grooming. We have seen but not photographed a juvenile in the area and will be looking out for him.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron

Lake Nelson's Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron
The Black Crowned Night Heron has been making a daily apperance (or really a nightly appearance) on Lake Nelson.

Return of the Black-crowned Night Heron

Night HeronThe Lake Nelson Night Heron has returned from his winter vacation to his favorite tree.  It's now been three years that he comes back to this tree where he sleeps during the day and fishes at night.

Black Crowned Night Heron on Floating Island

Frequent readers of this blog will know that we put an anchored floating island out on the lake, put some plants on it, and hoped to have a little Galapagos Island off our dock. We've had a sandpiper or two, several turtles and eleven baby ducks who ate the expensive plants. Tonight, we were pleased that a night heron made a bouncy landing and fished for a while. We're also glad to see some plants growing back.

Late Spring Birds

 

 

 

With the spring warbler migration ending and the weather warming up, we are spending more time in our backyard and less time going out birding.  Our feeders and birdbaths keep enough interesting birds in the area and Chris has become the Kool-aid mom for birds.

The baby ducks are growing, but all 11 and Mom still fit on the floating island and have consumed all the expensive plants we had on it.  We are waiting for baby orioles to appear.   The night heron keeps to himself and occasionally fishes from the dock.

Black-crowned Night Heron Chicks: Baylands Nature Preserve (California)

The highlight of the bird watching trip to Baylands Nature Preserve was seeing a nest of baby night herons. There may have been three in the nest, but two were visible most of the time. We have a black-crowned night heron or two in a tree near us but have never seen chicks before.

Snowy Egrets and Night Herons: Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto CA

Snowy Egret

Mike had a meeting in Silicon Valley last week and dropped by the Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto CA. It's an easy spot to find with a great map that even points to the area where the night herons nest. There were quite a few night heron nests with snowy egrets mixed in. While most of the egrets had their feathers under control, he got these pictures for Chris who likes birds with wild hairdos.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron

On a walk this morning, we saw two night herons at the the dam. We also spotted a few Baltimore orioles and saw a territory dispute between an oriole and a robin. A flash of yellow flew by Chris and she found a common yellowthroat. We went back home for the binoculars and camera and got a few night heron photos. We like the little "pony tail" plumage of the black-crowned night heron in breeding season.

The bottom photo shows a night heron on the flood gate. They are clever, but I don't think he's planning to raise it and let the water out of the lake to make it easier to fish.

He's back: The Black-crowned night heron

 

The black-crowned night heron has returned to Lake Nelson from his winter vacation. He's a full month later than last year. If he sticks to his schedule, he'll be sleeping all day for a while, coming out at dusk to feed and returning at dawn. When some chicks hatch, he'll start fishing in the day time. We are hopeful for offspring this year since we've seen another night heron flying with him at dusk. Last year, we did see a juvenile night heron.

We've also seen the green heron return, but he's much harder to find, keeps a less predictable schedule and is very shy so he's even harder to photograph.

Florida Herons

Black Crowned Night Heron


Green Heron

A few Black Crowned Night Herons and Green Herons spend their summer at Lake Nelson in Piscataway. We had to go to Florida to see them in the winter. There were also Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets but they were too plentiful to photograph. We took the night heron's photo at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and the green heron's at Eagle Lakes Community Park in Naples.

How many baby duck photos can we post?

Apparently quite a few. Other than baby ducks, there's not much else around, except a wet night heron.

What does a night heron do during the day?

 

 

While we were in the yard yesterday, the night heron was sleeping in a tree. We were quiet so we didn't disturb him. If only we could put an end to lawn mowers, leaf blowers and weed wackers.

Mike couldn't resist taking a few (hundred) more photos.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

 

 

The night herons seem to have taken over our backyard while we were shut in due to the rain (or escaping it in Florida). Here's two photos of the juvenile. His colors are starting to change.

The house wrens seem to have abandoned their nest in the duck house. Maybe they didn't like the herons using it as a fishing perch.

More of the Night Heron

 

 

 

 

Sorry if this is getting a bit repetitive, but it's hard not to take photos of a night heron in your tree especially when he's just waking up.