Some Birds at Centennial

My short walk at  Centennial Park last week included several bird sightings. I was most excited about a green heron that flew into a tree not far from where I was walking. I didn’t know what it was until I managed to zoom in enough with my camera. It is surprising how well camouflaged the birds are in the foliage. It flew down to the water’s edge from the tree and I didn’t see it again until it flew away across the water.

There was a mourning dove enjoying the morning sun on a park bench. When I walked closer it flew down to the shore…then squeakily away to the island in the lake.

There were birds in some foliage near the shore with berries. One flew out and perched on the top of a sign. I think it was a mockingbird. It proceeded to fluff its feathers – looking rather comical as it preened.

Way across the lake – a great white egret was fishing in the shallows. This picture is about at the limit for the zoom on my camera but I like to take pictures of these graceful birds. There were two great blue herons that flew low over the lake while I was there…but I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of either one.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – July 2016

Our July has been hot….a very summery month. My celebrations included.

Fireworks – but on July 9^th rather than on the 4^th. It was just when our local community held their event. We did buy a watermelon to enjoy on the 4^th of July – a typical food for summer celebrations.

“The Mother Nature” Award – I was so pleased to be recognized by the Howard County Conservancy for my volunteering with them. The contents of the goody bag (artisan bread and strawberry jam) was part of my little celebrations for about a week!

Photography with campers -  I’ve just finished 2 days of nature photography sessions with campers aged 5-12…and I am celebrating their photographs. I’m glad I’ve made it through the 2 very hot days too. Blog posts about the experience to come in the next few weeks.

Green Heron – I always celebrate seeing a bird in the wild that I don’t see very often…the green heron at Kenilworth is a good example. It was certainly the highpoint of that visit to the gardens.

Butterfly outreach – I volunteered to assist with butterfly outreach to 4 Montessori schools this month…one of which my daughter attended 20 years ago! I celebrated that the school is still going strong, much the same as it was when my daughter attended and the wonderful interaction with the children that are there now. They were all very interested in learning about butterflies.

Indoors, staying cool – We’ve had some very hot days recently and I celebrated most of them staying indoors with air conditioning – glad that I didn’t need to do anything outside!

Milkweed tussock caterpillars – Since I have quite a crop of these caterpillars at my house I have been able to photography them a lot this season. I’ll be doing an update soon since they are now even bigger than they were when I posted about them earlier this month.

Kitchen flooring – We have started the process to replace the flooring in our kitchen. It is 25 years old and needs to be done. I celebrated that my husband and I agreed easily on what we wanted and the materials have been ordered.

Carrot cake and Zucchini bread – This is two celebrations. I am using the bounty from my CSA to bake. I love having one of these for breakfast these days so the ‘celebration’ continues for more than just the day that I back. And I have bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer to make more!

Green Heron at Kenilworth Gardens

Last weekend when we went to Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, I decided to walk out to the boardwalk rather than stay in the area around the lotus and water lily ponds --- and I found the high point of the visit in the wetlands beside the boardwalk. Not far from the boardwalk, on a partially submerged fallen tree, was a green heron fishing for breakfast.

When I first saw the bird there was another nearby that flew away…but this one stayed long enough for me to move around to get some of the twigs out of my line of sight to the bird.

I zoomed out to get more of the scene. The bird was catching tiny fish – moving so quickly that I didn’t quite capture an image of the fish before it was swallowed.

The bird moved and my line of sight was even better.

The bird is only about as big as a large robin but has much heavier legs and feet...and a longer beak.

And it even posed for a maximum zoomed portrait!