Feeling Loony!

Today I decided to see if I could see the loon.  It's been on the reservoir for a few days, who knows if it will stick around for me.  I'm not feeling great but Claratin is my friend.  The wind, however, is not - it was fierce!

Anyway, there were about a gazillion (okay more like 6) cormorants on the reservoir, each one teasing me..... it might be a loon!  No, it's a cormorant.  They were flying around, diving under, confusing me, which was easy due to the Claratin.  I soldiered on, passing a yellow-rumped warbler and a group of about 6 pretty buffleheads. I saw three flying also, 2 females and one male.  That was cool!

I kept on, until finally I spotted it, smack in the middle - the loon!!!!  :-)

The pictures are not great, between the distance and the wind, but you can still pretty much tell that's what it is.

Hello gorgeous!

After seeing that I exited the reservoir pretty quickly.  It's a good thing I had my hat on a strap.  Laugh all you want, I like that hat!  :-)  Down to turtle pond, where I saw...... pretty much nothing.  Up the castle.  Nothing.  Down to the ramble.

This gorgeous egret was hanging out in the upper lobe.  Looks like he needs to do some clean-up after his preening.

The preening however was a success - quite dapper.  There was another yellow-rumped warbler or three there, and a creeper that flirted with me, and a flicker or two.  Not as many flickers as that one day, but still quite a few around.  I actually accidentally flushed one, I was just a step or two away from it.  Um, thanks, Claratin........ I mean really - how do you miss a flicker that close???

Over the gill was this super-cutie blue-gray gnatcatcher!

There's the tail with the white on the outside.  It was so cute and round!  Sadly that was about it for the rest of the ramble.  I didn't wait around, I just wanted to keep moving.

Back at the upper lobe, the egret was really showing off for the tourists, and a cormorant joined the show.  This creeper came right over, though, and demanded his share of attention.

As predicted, I had another chance to photograph a black and white....... Hopefully I'll get another chance yet again!

Heading home, some kids were making a big deal over a turtle, so I looked - and here he was, the big daddy snapping turtle!  He's quite impressive.

Further on there was a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers flying about doing their thing, maybe they will nest too.  I would so love to see some woodpecker chicks!