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?

House finch?

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.

The Three Turtles.

Ruffled up roadrunner in the...wait for it... ROAD!

Great egret.

Common sandpiper

Sandpiper.

Wasp nest??

American avocets

Black-necked stilt

Black-necked stilt.

Great egret hunting.

White pelicans

Great egrets.

Common goldeneye??

The Audubon Visitor Center closes at 4:00 p.m. and that's exactly when I finished my walk. Whew. Made it!

Now 60 Minutes is on TV. The first episode was on robotics. The future of robotics looks very interesting.

I hope you all had a good weekend.

Travel Bug out.