Loon’s

After a few days away, wandered down to the boat launch this morning to see where the water levels were…

and was surprised to spot a pair of…

Common Loon!  Finding a Loon on our ‘lake’ isn’t completely out of the question, we do sometimes experience the thrill of hearing their call out there during high water…

but I don’t recall ever seeing a pair of them before.

as for water levels…well they continue to creep up…about as high now as the ‘high water’ mark for last year…

mid-day we went for our walk to the park…the viewing platform is around the corner out there somewhere…going to be quite some time before there is any ‘viewing’ done from it again…it was very busy in these bushes, saw both the Bushtits and the Black Cap Chickadee busy going in the direction of their nests….lots of Warblers…could make out a couple of Wilson’s Warblers, also Orange Crowned…Orioles calling from the trees…

the way to the log bay is now blocked by water so had to go up and through the housing development…something I don’t like to do, and won’t do very often, due to the ‘Private Property – No Entry’ signs on the gates.  Doesn’t matter how many people tell me to ignore them…it is ingrained in me to obey signs..

nevertheless for the sake of this blog…I disobeyed  (feeling very guilty the whole time) and reached the log bay…water is getting close to the bench now.  There were birds everywhere, 4 types of Swallows (Tree, Barn, Northern Rough Wing, and Violet Green), saw a pair of Spotted Sandpipers…a female Rufous Hummingbird was gathering fluff from spent pussy willows and taking it up into one of the large Poplar’s…everything in nature has a purpose…pussy willow fluff makes great nesting material for tiny little birds.

The return trail…blocked at this end as well..

there was a great deal of bird activity…but not a lot you could actually see – did manage to capture this female Purple Finch…

and this Spotted Towhee eating the dandelion seeds – saw a lot of Towhee today after their being rather scarce for the last while, so I suspect that this years batch of youngsters have now hatched and parents are busy food gathering…

also of note today, the native Thimbleberry shrubs are in flower.  I love the flowers of this shrub, they are so big and showy!  I also spotted the first Wild Rose flowers today but they were in an awkward spot so thought I’d leave them for now.