Resigned to Being Back In Illinois
The only things blooming here are the earliest crocuses, and clumps of snowdrops. Altho the sun shines brilliantly, and these few flowers are much welcome, I still came here to the blogspot mostly to look again at my heron picture.
Bill took so much time to trek about with me. Bit by bit, I'm learning that many birds do want to be as close to others of their sort as possible. When we saw what I assumed were more swans in Klamath Falls, he hollered, "No, look, they're pelicans!" and all nine or ten of them, clumped together with many of their bills tucked into the same little marshy clump, indeed had bright orange beaks and were hugely white and bulky. There are an awful lot of swans, true; with black beaks, serene even if an eagle is perched watching their flock. They fly very near each other as they motor down in pairs to land, but they're not gulls!
That eagle quit watching swans and dodged off to create a large scatter of ducks, and then joined another eagle (and dislodged another eagle) and ate his prey while we watched. He had to drag it through the terrain periodically. One gull was practically jumping up and down at his shoulder, just dying to get a piece.
On the way back one evening, we took a route through a town called Merrill I think, and saw a tree, a single spruce tree, large, just surrounded by egrets of differing sizes and apparently differing temperament, all trying fantastically to lodge themselves in the branches of this one tree. Some would fly over us and circle back to push their way in. Some were actually securely lodged and wouldn't budge. They're a gorgeous bird like a white heron. Eventually, they were going to move to some of the trees on the other side of the bit of water -- this is only a block away from a main drag, Rte 139, I think.
We did indeed stop there the next morning. No egrets in sight. But a pair of beautiful red-tailed hawks, courting. We watched him add twigss (pretty big ones) to the nest, and she supervised. Once, when he was slow coming back with one, she did go off to see if he was okay...
In Magnolia, we found the Kiwanis Ravine. Yes, a lot of heron nests. All in one tree! Well, in one clump of large tree and two smaller ones. Not sitting in the nests, but perched haughtily above them, numbers of herons, who eventually made a solemnly beautiful parade down the waterside probably going off to dinner.
And the University heron is in residence. Didn't spot nest. Did see another pair of wings on the waterside. And a muskrat, and real killdeer, who like to walk on the same roadway the college kids run on.
Bill took so much time to trek about with me. Bit by bit, I'm learning that many birds do want to be as close to others of their sort as possible. When we saw what I assumed were more swans in Klamath Falls, he hollered, "No, look, they're pelicans!" and all nine or ten of them, clumped together with many of their bills tucked into the same little marshy clump, indeed had bright orange beaks and were hugely white and bulky. There are an awful lot of swans, true; with black beaks, serene even if an eagle is perched watching their flock. They fly very near each other as they motor down in pairs to land, but they're not gulls!
That eagle quit watching swans and dodged off to create a large scatter of ducks, and then joined another eagle (and dislodged another eagle) and ate his prey while we watched. He had to drag it through the terrain periodically. One gull was practically jumping up and down at his shoulder, just dying to get a piece.
On the way back one evening, we took a route through a town called Merrill I think, and saw a tree, a single spruce tree, large, just surrounded by egrets of differing sizes and apparently differing temperament, all trying fantastically to lodge themselves in the branches of this one tree. Some would fly over us and circle back to push their way in. Some were actually securely lodged and wouldn't budge. They're a gorgeous bird like a white heron. Eventually, they were going to move to some of the trees on the other side of the bit of water -- this is only a block away from a main drag, Rte 139, I think.
We did indeed stop there the next morning. No egrets in sight. But a pair of beautiful red-tailed hawks, courting. We watched him add twigss (pretty big ones) to the nest, and she supervised. Once, when he was slow coming back with one, she did go off to see if he was okay...
In Magnolia, we found the Kiwanis Ravine. Yes, a lot of heron nests. All in one tree! Well, in one clump of large tree and two smaller ones. Not sitting in the nests, but perched haughtily above them, numbers of herons, who eventually made a solemnly beautiful parade down the waterside probably going off to dinner.
And the University heron is in residence. Didn't spot nest. Did see another pair of wings on the waterside. And a muskrat, and real killdeer, who like to walk on the same roadway the college kids run on.
posted by Molly McJohn @ 4:34 PM
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