Same walk, 2 very different days....

 For various reasons, we've been walking in different places, but yesterday, and again today, we did our normal walks, over to the park in the morning and along the dyke in the afternoon.

we started yesterday over at the log bay....weather was very chilly and just a little misty...

there were a number of Mallards, many of them snoozing like this trio, only one female Common Merganser....for some reason she seems to hang out with the Mallards.

A Steller's Jay came down for a drink or a bath....

the common denominator between yesterday and today, were the Red-wing Blackbirds...

heading over to the dyke after lunch.....

it was the day I've been expecting ......the day the robins really arrive.  

there were Robins everywhere!  Guesstimate would be a couple of hundred in the area all told.

lots of European Starling too, some were in flocks, but this was one of a pair busy....

building a nest in a cavity in the shortest of these ....

must have seen at least a dozen Spotted Towhee a well....this one was eating the catkin from a broken branch from one of the Cottonwoods that line the dyke

The most thrilling sight though, was finding...

a couple of Western Meadowlark.  I'd heard meadowlarks the last few times we had been there, but wasn't able to spot them until now.

 here is the other one.  Meadowlarks are only found here for a few weeks during migration.

Finally, 

there were a couple of Great Blue Heron in one of the fields, it has been a while since we'd seen any in the area.

Today's walk was much different....not a single robin, no sign of Meadowlarks,

there was a pair of Hooded Merganser (male only in photo) along with some Mallards in the quiet pond at the start of the walk.

there were a couple of hundred Geese back in the fields, and a few on the water, including this one checking out a nesting site.

Speaking of nesting sites...

this Bald Eagle pair were very active and vocal around the nest today.

Nothing else was seen or heard until we had almost returned to our car, when suddenly...

a couple of Steller's Jay dove deep down into the bushes....  Why?

this is why!  I'm never 100% positive about ID'ing these guys but I think it is a Cooper's Hawk rather than a Sharp-shin.  Whichever it is, it cooperated by perching close by so I could get pictures.