Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Bluegrass bathing beauties....

We drove to Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife area to have our lunch while watching birds...hopefully.
We pulled into one parking lot by a lake to take photos of the lotus flowers and suddenly several birds showed up to take baths and get a drink!Dickcissel on the left, 2 male Goldfinches, but what is on the right???
Here it is before the bath......bigger than the Goldfinches, and a more pointed beak. An Oriole of some sort? Looking in my book, it looks most like an Orchard Oriole, but having never seen one, I really don't know.

It really enjoyed the water!

3 in the water.

Goldfinch wading :-)

The tall Lotus flowers were what caught our eye and brought us into the parking lot to begin with.
They were really pretty. We've never been there when they were in bloom before. Usually I just see the dried seed pods.
Such interesting centers!
They were blowing in the wind, so it was hard to get the photos I was aiming for at times.
Well, those are my "bathing beauties". We saw a few other things, but will save something for tomorrow.

14 comments:

Jenn Jilks said...

What great shots and story. I understand about the wind! cheerio

me ann my camera said...

I would love to see those flowers, they look so beautiful!

Ann

DeniseinVA said...

Looks like a great time out.
An English Girl Rambles

Cicero Sings said...

Those lotus flowers have VERY interesting centers!

Dorothy said...

How wonderful that you caught the birds enjoying a bath in the fresh water! I sure can't ID that bird for you. I like those water lilies, especially the ones that make those interesting pods when they are dried.

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

I'm thinking it looks like a female Orchard Oriole.I love those Lotus flowers,they are gorgeous.
Blessings,Ruth

Arija said...

What an amazing display of lotus, quite stunning. I have never seen them in the wild, just in the lake at our Bot.Gardens. I just love the way we always get rewarded when we strop to admire something in nature,, you got to watch those bathing beauties.

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

Oh my goodness Mary, these are really stunning!! We do not have the lotus here but of course it is quite smilar to the waterlily.

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos as usual Mary! The color on the finches showed up wonderfully bright. And it was neat to see a Lotus. My mother used to have an arrangement of them dried (with some other things) on our TV when I was a kid. I'd forgotten all about that, till I saw your photos today. ;)

Anonymous said...

Those Lotus flowers are so unusual Mary.

Philip said...

Your Goldfinch looks like our black headed Oriole Nice shots Mary :)

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Mary, Love the Lotus flowers.. They really are interesting... Then centers are unique, aren't they????

Not sure of your bird--but I would have said Oriole if I had to guess.

Have a great 4th of July. God Bless America.
Hugs,
Betsy

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Mary: Wonderful capture of the strange bird. I loved the water lilies.

Rose said...

I love that one of with the birds where the one on the right is really enjoying his bath!