The Marsh Project Week #10

My husband thinks I am nuts.

The reason he thinks this is because I was out on the trail in the drizzling, freezing rain.  I need this, I told him.  I have to get out there.  It's an itch that must be scratched. I haven't been outside all week. Then I told him I probably wouldn't be out there very long, just long enough for a quick walk to get some fresh air, and then he gave me the look that said I've heard this before (he has), and I don't believe you, and then I was putting on my hiking boots and heading down the road.

I got out there and not much was going on; a few ducks were floating on the river.  They flew off as soon as I attempted a photo.  I walked down the trail to the blind and, with the exception of a couple of the usual little brown birds, some ducks, and a flock of least sandpipers on the river's edge, I didn't see anything.  I had hopes that this meant I'd see more on the way back to my car. I didn't stay long at the blind; my fingers were freezing (actually, all of me was freezing- it was really cold).  I could hear a belted kingfisher chattering away, but he wasn't in viewing range.

Great Blue Heron

On the way back, a bit more luck: some great egrets had settled in on another pond, and a very cold looking great blue heron was standing in the middle of the river.  As I walked by he flew off and then settled down on a nearby log.   I saw some song sparrows on another pile of wood; they didn't look cold.  I saw no ruby-crowned kinglets, usually a staple observation in this area in the winter months.

Song Sparrow

The real excitement happened on my way out of the park. I was driving down the road, heater on full blast  A coyote ran alongside the road for several yards just ahead of me, then ran across the road in front of my car and into the woods on the other side.  No photos of that; he was running too fast.

Observed: downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, song sparrow, osprey, great blue heron, great egret, mallards, common goldeneye, spotted towhee, cardinals, least sandpiper, belted kingfisher (heard, not seen), what I think was either a double-crested or neotropic cormorant (flew off before I got a really good look) and one wily coyote.  No roadrunners.