Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Making the weekly rounds....

We headed over to Henderson for the weekly eagle/heron rookery check yesterday. Nothing happening in the eagle's nest, but they are still there. I was trying to shoot the grasses, but realized that this gives you an idea of how far away the trees with the eagle's nest and heron rookery are.....that is them in the distance.
The roadside is so full of flowers and weeds and bushes now, that it is a wonder we can see over them to the trees! This Sulpher butterfly was enjoying the crown vetch.

Teasel!.....At first I thought it was a weird kind of thistle, but then remembered what it was. Very interesting....but very prickly!

I've never seen it blooming before.

Lots of herons in lots of nests....what can I say.

This area always looks like about 3 nests all joined together with many large birds :-)
Since the eagles were not doing anything, we headed out to Blue Grass to see if there was anything new there.
I decided to go walk in this little "forest" of trees....some sort of willows?

They had these "fruits" all over them.

Found a really nice nest in one of the trees just above my head. I was dying to look in it, but resisted. I'm always afraid I will disturb a bird and make it desert the nest.
Higher up in the trees, this little bird was busy cleaning his feathers. I don't know if he goes with the nest, or not. He was very intent on cleaning and itching.
Not sure what it is....a flycatcher of some sort?

Very plain in color.
One of the feathers he pulled out :-)
I'll stop here in case I don't have anything to post tomorrow.

12 comments:

Lindy said...

Glad to see this post today as we were wondering if the eagles and herons were still around. Our young eagle was exercising its wings two weeks ago, the last that Mike checked, so it will probably be going out on its own soon. Looks like you had a beautiful day for exploring. :)

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

That looks like a wonderful place for them to nest Mary and I am sure the area must be teeming with bugs too because of the water there which is making everything grow.

Dorothy said...

Interesting! Don't know the name of your bird. Maybe some of the real birders will identify it.

George said...

Thanks for the update on the herons and eagles. It looks as if you had a gorgeous day and I look forward to more pictures from your rounds.

Leedra said...

Nice Sulphur photo.

Becky said...

Great shots of course Mary. You go to the best sites.
B.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

I always look forward to your trips to Henderson, Mary. You get such great pictures ---of the birds and flowers. Neat place!!!!

Amazes me looking at all of those heron nests in that tree...

Hope you have a good day tomorrow.
Hugs,
Betsy

Kelly said...

Mary...there's a chance your bird is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Was he tiny and moving around all over the place making a good deal of noise? If I heard him, I would know. The last photo looks like a gnatcatcher with the white eye ring and blue-gray upper parts... They are so cute. I love these little birds!

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Mary: I love the photos you get from that area.

Mary said...

Kelly: Actually he was so busy cleaning that he didn't move around a lot. He was rather small...about titmouse or warbler size.

Eve said...

Great job finding the Gnatcatcher Mary! I've not gotten one yet! I LOVE the teasel! What is it about that plant that just gets me going?! Great post and photos as usual!

Mary said...

Eve: The little gnatcatcher was very cute. He was busy preening the whole time. Maybe he had some of the ticks that I had when I got home...yuck. Teasel is such a cool looking plant no matter what season it is.