as water levels are really dropping quickly now. I had hoped to get out closer to the river to see if there were any migrating shorebirds yet but it was just too windy out there so had to just poke about in this northwest corner.
you can see the grasses are taking over. Look carefully in the middle....see the little spot of yellow?
that is the aquatic plant 'Greater Bladderwort' - if was in flower all over the place over there.
Another flower that we weren't so thrilled to spot was this....
Purple Loosestrife. This invasive plant tends to take over wetlands....so far this is the only plant out there (at least as far as we know) but something to keep an eye on. Speaking of 'invasive' we were hearing Bull frogs all over the place. Didn't see any but...
there we these large (baseball size) egg cases all over. Don't recall seeing such a thing before. I don't know if they are associated with Bullfrogs but if they are we have a scary situation happening out there.
fortunately there were also a lot of these Great Blue Heron out there who happily eat frogs...
there wasn't a lot of bird life out there...mainly..
Red-wing Blackbirds....must be second or maybe even third hatches.
Was thrilled to see a lot of activity around the....
Purple Martin boxes. There were a number of them flying around but it looked like there were still a couple of active nests as well. Saw one pair of Tree Swallows still taking food to a nest but most of them have disappeared now, in fact swallows are down to a few Barn Swallows and Northern Rough Wings.
A big surprise was....
this Coyote! Of course we know there are coyotes around here - lots of them - but to have one stop and pose for a picture is a treat. Perhaps it had it's eye on my little dog that was in the canoe with us.
not so cooperative were the hundreds of Dragonflies....none of which would land long enough for a picture. I took this photo a few days ago as it is a type I had never seen before...apparently it is a Blue Dasher.
and here is an evening view from a day or so ago. Where the water is will be dry land in the next few days.
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