Felt like Spring today (Birding Tuesday)

Today felt like Spring, temperature-wise. I went out for a walk again late afternoon. It was a pretty good birding day.

Blue skies.

Red-winged Blackbirds are singing.

I can never get tired of looking at Great Blue Herons. Magnificent birds.

Unidentified insect. There were a few of them, I was surprised to see them during the winter.

Saw this Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) on top of a tree. After a while, it flew to another.

Poor but closer-up pictures of the Flicker drilling for insects. Flicker likes to eat ants and usually does it on the ground. But it can still climb up trees and hammer for hidden insects like regular woodpeckers.

Saw two pairs of Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) today. One pair was probably the ones I saw yesterday. The female of the other pair fell behind because it dived the water.

This female merganser surfaced a few minutes later and had to call to find her mate. Although All About Birds described the male's call (during courtship) as "a deep rolling frog-like sound" and silent at other times, the female actually sounded like a small dog growling. I imitated it and got a few strange looks from the female herself. That was interesting.

This is the male Green-winged Teal. The second close-up picture shows why they are called "green-winged". Neat.

Bald Eagle returning home. Although strangely, I didn't saw any eagles perched on the trees today.

Sun was setting, so time for me to head on home too.

While heading home, I saw a bird flying low at the opposite end of the Sturgeon Bank (near the ocean) and it didn't looked like a harrier. Looking closely with my binocular, I think it may had been an owl. The exact species? I am not sure. Later on, a Northern Harrier (that I am sure of) came by and it seemed to chase owl off. I wish I saw it better.

The heron was still near the same spot.

Northern Harrier also heading somewhere.

Another Great Blue Heron. I was taking pictures of the sky before I realized that something was in front of me. It didn't move a whole lot or attack whatever it was looking at.

What was I taking a picture of? Well this.

Writing in the sky or a message from Above?

Lovely day nevertheless.

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