As a change from fungi and bugs, I thought you might like a few birds!
The Broad-winged Hawks were breeding by a small pond in our woods. This is a fledgling, still being fed by its parents, and it spent hours on a branch calling insistently for food:
I recorded its plaintive high-pitched call here:
It hoped the pine cone might be edible, but it was out of reach:
It knew I was there, but although it could fly short distances, but it stayed put:
Two weeks later, it was still around, but most of the calling had stopped, and it flew much more:
By the same pond, a heron was hunting in the reeds:
It flew up when I moved:
A mudlarking Solitary Sandpiper caught some sort of crayfish:
In the branches above, two young Bluejays played:
A Ruby-throated hummingbird gorged on a pond-side clump of Touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis) flowers, aka orange jewelweed:
Back in the garden, a Grey Catbird had a scarlet berry trophy, but a female Northern Cardinal landed close by and disturbed its feeding:
In shock, it dropped the berry:
And a song sparrow hopped along the stone wall.
Nothing rare, but being surrounded by such creatures brings me happiness.
Eyes on the Wild 