Good morning and Happy Halloween to all. Next Sunday morning, we'll all be recovering from a sugar hangover from Halloween the night before, so I thought we could let this morning's edition of Dawn Chorus get us in the mood.
Fall has fallen. I made a brief trip tooday to one of our National Wildlife Refuges to check out the water levels for migrating birds. Though water wasn't anywhere near plentiful, it was enough to give sanctuary to thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese and a small number of wintering ducks who will be arriving in greater numbers in the weeks ahead.
I also saw many Northern Pintails and Northern Shovelers, a couple of Eurasian Wigeons, and a whole bunch of Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets and White-faced Ibis all working the stubbled, wet fields together, with one Sandhill Crane in the mix for good measure.
As I was about to leave the auto tour area, my eye caught movement to my left and I was barely able to register three scuttling female Ring-necked Pheasants trying to disappear into the abundant grasses, too fast for me to raise my camera, but their gentleman friend waasn't nearly as skittish and I got a couple of shots of him before he joined the ladies in the brush.
Here, he appears to be posiing, doesn't he? This was late afternoon sun; I love the color saturation.
As I was leaving the area, I saw this egret sitting on a tree branch. At first I didn't notice the juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron below, but both were passively perched and I took the photo. Only later when I uploaded these photos did I notice the turtle at he bottom of the log.
I dub this: Fall Trio.
This is an Open Thread. What's going on in your birding world lately?