Urban Dinosaurs

The star of today's outing was a female anhinga. Not a lifer—I saw one in Argentina at Iguazu Falls 11 years ago—but a treat nevertheless. I also hadn't seen any black-crowned night herons in this area; today, I saw three. To round it out, there was a double-crested cormorant.
#birds #birdsforbecsnan #wildlifePhotography

A green heron in its normal and its punk mode, and a turtle that got cautious when I approached it too closely.
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At Wheaton Park yesterday: a green heron, a great blue heron, and two American robins that have found some food, a bug and a worm.
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A lot of tree sparrows, some in or around nesting boxes, at the Blue Mash Nature Trail today. Also: a cedar waxwing (definitely one of the prettiest birds around) and a great crested flycatcher.
#birds #wildlifePhotography #birdsforbecsnan

At Riverbend Park on the Potomac today: a pair of one of my favorite birds, the pileated woodpecker, an indigo bunting, a house wren (lifer!), and what I believe is a tree swallow chick looking out of the nest box hole.
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A great spangled fritillary, a barn swallow, an osprey in flight (being photobombed by a barn swallow, and a white water lily being photobombed by an amberwing dragonfly. (Aside: I've given up trying to photograph swallows in flight—so one showed up anyway. And I had no idea the dragonfly was on the water lily when I took that picture.)
Patuxent Research Refuge, South Tract.
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Great birding at some of the parks and wildlife refuges in Virginia, but oh, the traffic getting back… These were at Mason's Neck, the state park and the adjoining national wildlife refuge: a bald eagle (you can't see it in the photo, but it was carrying a fish), an osprey looking down, a red-winged blackbird, and a tree swallow.
#birds
#wildlifePhotography #birdsforbecsnan

A Mississippi kite, which really shouldn't be here but there are at least three in the area. This one is one of a pair that is probably building a nest near where they nested last summer. Across from Welsh Regional Park.
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Purple martins!
These round white objects are nest boxes—per https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Purple_Martin, eastern purple martins almost never nest "naturally" any more; instead, they rely on human-created nest boxes. This picture shows (I think) a female on the "balcony" of the left nest sphere, a male on the right, and in the middle near the pole what I believe is a chick that hasn't quite fledged yet.
Audrey Carroll Sanctuary, Mt. Airy, MD.
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Infinity. (This is a summer view—I'll try to get more with autumn leaves, bare winter branches, and buds in the spring.)

Also at Blue Mash today: a groundhog (4.5 months too late?), a white-tailed deer (I wonder if the small black spots on its face and in its ear are deer ticks), and what I think is a red saddlebags dragonfly.
#wildlifePhotography

A pied-billed grebe with a soon-to-be ex-frog…
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At Riverbend Park along the Potomac: an adult and a juvenile bald eagle at a nest, a great blue heron (with its tongue showing), and a red-shouldered hawk. 1/2
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A red-bellied woodpecker, preening.
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Today I went to a local nature trail adjacent to (and formerly part of) a landfill. But it has nice birds and critters…
A trumpeter swan (lifer, and shouldn't be here!), eastern wood pewee, and two eastern bluebirds, one that has just scored a bug and a juvenile.
#birds #wildlifePhotography #birdsforbecsnan