I took this in early August at a local reserve. The young wood duck had recently emerged from the water with its siblings. The young are quite fearless but its mother was close by.

The woodpecker had been drilling away at the tree for some time when he suddenly looked up, perhaps taking a break from all that hammering.

I like these large ducks, close relatives of mallards. They’re often seen swimming together and also tend to be a little less vocal 😏

We tend to see more goldfinch in the late summer and early fall as flowers dry and form seed heads, their food of choice. This male looks like he’s beginning to moult.

On a recent drive heading to a new birding area, we stopped when we saw this pond close to a suburban development. The water was teeming with several egrets, cormorants and a lot of other water birds.  We never did make it to our original destination.

I enjoy seeing cardinals no matter the season. I saw this one in the spring. He struck a fine pose too.

I saw the heron in the reeds but couldn’t get a clear shot. All of a sudden it decided to fly across the pond and I caught this. More to come…

People we met on the trail pointed us in the general direction of this barred owl. Unlike other owls who often keep close to the trunk or inside a tree cavity, barred owls often are quite easy to spot if you know where to look.  This owl was my first of the year.

As we followed the path down to the beach we saw an egret standing in the long grass. After a while it turned towards the river and we left it to its wandering.

That’s what I like about mallards, they look you right in the eye.

I heard the pileated woodpecker before I saw it. As we got closer, several people were gathered close to the tree the bird was excavating.  If you look closely you can just see its tongue darting into the hole it had drilled to retrieve its meal.

As the summer moves along wood ducks become a bit bolder and don’t retreat when they see you. This imposing male strode along like he owned the place 😊

This female downy was enjoying her meal. When these little birds are feeding they don’t notice the photographer lurking in the background 😊

I don’t much care for these gulls in the city but on the river my opinion of them changes. They fish and fly and even pose quite nicely; and you don’t need to keep “an eye to the sky” 😏

One day in June we were treated to a mallard and her chicks swimming along close to shore. They had passed a gull earlier on who didn’t glance their way and this Great Blue Heron who was very preoccupied with finding its next meal.