June 21st, 2023

Happy Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice!

One of my jobs cut my hours... again... >_> But it left me some time to go to Veteran's Park. I needed to renew some library books anyway.

The highlights were the night-heron and what I think was a couple of leucistic mallards, and their cohorts the Mallard Loafs, fresh and toasty on the piers, along with some maybe-melaninistic mallards. And of course my first baby ducklings of the season!!

The little scrub jay with the quiet voice who let me get close was super cool, too. Hopefully they learn to be more wary as they get bigger! I also saw a killdeer who Very Definitely Had a Broken Wing Poor Thing, Please Come Eat Me And Ignore The Nest.

Ohhhh and seeing those grebes close enough to maybe ID species was delightful. Finally got a good picture of a pelican, too!

The drumstick and the dead robin were kind of bittersweet. Who knows what ate the whatever-it-was, but as for the robin, it was neat to see his markings up close, but, of course, it's always sad to come across a dead animal. He might well have been one of the little guys I see around, too. And it's concerning that he just seemed to drop dead with no obvious cause... though I suppose the cold snap might have done it.

Either way, I'm sure the pavement ant colony was happy.

Posted on June 22, 2023 04:11 AM by sparky_lurkdragon