Sunday Bird Spotting

Here are few birds I spotted today.

Today I decided to try and get as many in flight shots as possible. My camera isn't the best at action shots like this in cloudy light but it did good enough to see some detail on this great blue heron.

Here is a first for me, an osprey. I ventured out far up north in Illinois up near the Fox River and I saw this guy flying right above me. He was probably headed towards the river to catch a meal.

I also found the bobolink paradise. This was in a state park that has lots of grassy fields and there were at least 10 different pairs of bobolinks. The males fly up and make electronic noises and circle around where the female is on the ground. This makes it difficult to get a nice still shot of them.

Then when they land they are obscured by the tall grass. These birds are ground nesting and became endangered as they lay their eggs in agriculture fields then they get mowed or plowed under. This area is protected so they have figured out they can nest here safely. I kept an eye out for nests but found none so they may just be pairing up at this point.

Most of what I saw today were great egrets.

This one was incoming to a bog area to hunt for frogs or tadpoles.

Now for the great egret landing. The little turtle better watch out he doesn't get gutted.

Then it was on to hunting where they stand still like this for ages hoping to see movement below to strike at.

Finally here is a catbird meowing loudly hidden away behind the leaves. I'm surprised my camera even focused in on him. Most of the green blur is from leaves in the foreground.

I also saw quite a few thrushes, a scarlet tanager, a yellow warbler and a few other colorful birds. I'll save those guys for #featheredfriday :-) Thanks for looking.