No rEGRET!

Sunflowers

It was a beautiful summer morning - clear and 63 degrees at 7:10 a.m. The park was noticeably more quiet than last weekend.

I was only there a few minutes, when Haynes arrived. Unfortunately, I saw another house sparrow (a female this time). Luckily, it's not breeding season or I would be very unhappy.

The sunflowers were spectacular. All I could think about was Van Gogh and his sunflower paintings from the south of France. The scale of them is hard to believe. It almost felt like Jack in the Beanstalk!

Great White Egret

We saw several song sparrows, catbirds, goldfinches, robins and blue jays. A mockingbird was perched on one of the garden fences. Lower garden excitement included a great crested flycatcher perched on a Tree of Heaven and two beautiful common yellowthroat females. A hummingbird whizzed by.

The upper gardens were very quiet too. We did manage to see some cardinals, lots of robins, titmice, a hummingbird and a rather scruffy looking juvenile house wren. We could hear the red eyed vireo and the peewee singing.

The soccer field area yielded an oriole nest high up in an aspen, a large group of titmice, an eastern phoebe, a downy woodpecker and a warbling vireo. Hoping for some excitement down by the pond, we quietly made our way in through some brush. A green heron was preening on a log to the side and a solitary sandpiper was looking for yummy things to eat in the mud. The water in the pond has been gradually disappearing. A few mallards were in the distance and as we stood there, a great white egret flew in! It was quite a sight. It preened for a bit. I snapped a few pictures. I didn't realize until I got home and looked at the pictures on the computer, how much they can twist their necks to get at those hard to reach places under the wing!

Frog

The river was fairly quiet although a warbling vireo was having a grand time singing and a group of titmice flew back and forth. The canoe place was quite busy. What a great day to float down the river! A large frog was hanging out near the edge and unlike most of his friends who jump in the water when you're 10 feet away, this one was not shy at all about letting me take his picture.

P.S. Our yellow warbler friends seem to have moved on. Not one sweet, sweet, very sweet was heard. And where are our bluebirds?