Photography was challenging on this day.
Several trees have been uprooted
3 degrees, heavy rain and strong winds at the start
Bird Highlight: Long-tailed Duck
Long-tailed Duck (male)
Botany Highlight: Golden Weeping Willow
Golden Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica)
Species list: double-crested cormorant, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, gadwall, bufflehead, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser, herring gull, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, barn swallow, tree swallow, European starling, red-winged blackbird, common grackle, brown-headed cowbird, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, dark-eyed junco, song sparrow. (21 species)
Mute Swan
Buffleheads
American Robin
Rock Pigeons
Gadwall (male)
Dark-eyed Junco
Mallard (female)
Tartarian Honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica)
Double-crested Cormorant
Canada Goose
Herring Gull (immature) with fish (Rainbow Trout)
Red-winged Blackbird (male)
Ring-billed Gull
Miles Hearn
NATURE POETRY
We like March, his shoes are purple
He is new and high;
Makes he mud for dog and peddler,
Makes he forest dry.
– Emily Dickinson (1830–86)
Miles, I can’t believe you went out in this weather!!!!!!!!!!!
9 degrees of separation between April 16, 2018 and May 25, 2017
Your last picture gave me a chuckle. Was that a first for you- a group of one? You are a hardy soul and I hope that you enjoyed your walk. There were more birds out than I would have thought and your pics are great. Sure have been thinking about the robins. See you in a few weeks.
I consulted with my brother on the ID of the fish in the gull’s beak. He knows his fish so well I refer to him as my brother the trout, and his online nickname is Salvelinas fontinalis, after the brook trout. The photo isn’t the clearest but it looks like that fish has an adipose fin (on the top near the tail). If so, that narrows it right down. Catfish have adipose fins but it isn’t a catfish. Salmonoids though, also have adipose fins. Much more likely. Now which one. If it were a chinook, for instance, coming in to gorge on baitfish, it would look silver and not so dark. This fish looks like one that’s spent some time in the river. My brother says he’s fairly sure that’s a spring spawning rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss.