Sleeping in the Forest

The sun came out today for the first time in quite a while. Even though I had to work, I still made a little time to visit the small wetland area by the railroad tracks. I brought my camera to work for this very purpose, and I had a rather National Geographic-like photo shoot in the reeds. I crept down into the marshy area, climbing through cattails and blackberry thorns. The red-winged blackbird males were making their typical spring ruckus, yelling "conk-a-ree!" over and over to defend their breeding territory and advertise to females. I wanted to get some pictures of this cool behavior, especially the song-spread display where they spread their tails and wings partially and flash their bright red epaulets.











Sadly, there are some grasses in the way, but I am still pretty pleased with the results.

There were some double-crested cormorants there, I never knew they had such amazing turquoise eyes!



and here is the ruby-crowned kinglet... I am pretty sure it is the same bird I mistook for a Hutton's vireo in the same location last spring: