hooda-thunkit: For the Birds -- Jan. 13

Sunday, January 13, 2013

For the Birds -- Jan. 13

The day: bright, sunny, 55 degrees, windy, beautiful cloud formations. Sounds like a good day for a walk.

Beautiful day at Mitchell Lake Wetlands.

Our day did not start particularly early because we caught up on much-needed sleep. We had made a deal the day before that Bob would walk with me if we went early in the day. Both of knew that probably wasn't going to happen, being I'm such a night owl.

Bob's agenda for today was to watch the Seahawks game at noon, then go in to work this evening. It was 11:30 a.m. when we rolled out of bed. After a shower, he was ready for the Seahawks game on TV at noon.

I ate breakfast, showered, read blogs and was at Mitchell Lake Audubon Wetlands starting my walk at 1:30 p.m. The wetlands closes at 4:00 p.m. so I had plenty of time to do my 10K (6.2 mile) Volksmarch IF I didn't stop too much to photograph birds. Ha! By now you know I love birds and photography.

Bob loaned me his windbreaker because it was 55 degrees and a bit windy. However, when I started out the door of the Audubon Visitor Center, I KNEW I would be too hot if I wore the jacket. I did have a sweatshirt, long jeans, and my warm hat on and that was sufficient.

Not long after starting out, I spied this bird sitting in the top of a tree. Beautiful colors. I think it's an American kestrel. Click to enlarge photo and look at its coloring.

American kestrel.

I saw the sculpture below on the other side of a gate and I had to go see what it was. Looks like a Native American running.

This is the scenery on my walk at the wetlands.

East polder.

The road between Mitchell Lake and one of the basins.

The first two-thirds of the walk I was trucking right along, seeing the usual Mexican ducks, mockingbirds and sparrows. Then it got interesting and I stopped to take photos...

I caught a duck in flight!

Northern shoveler

Any idea what bird this is?

House finch?

Sandpiper.

One of my missed photo opportunities: turtles basking in the sun who, upon hearing my footsteps, all dove in the water simultaneously. I could not count them, but I would guess there were ten of them. It would have made an awesome photo. I did manage to zoom in on these three across the pond.