Yesterday morning I was drinking some coffee, pleased to see the sun shining, working on building the motivation to do some yard work, when I came across photos of a Brant on a local blog from Whitaker Ponds. Brant is a fairly rare bird this far inland and I pretty much immediately headed out to the ponds to see for myself.
I scanned the geese quickly but couldn't find the goose I was looking for. A kingfisher posed rather nicely for me though:
I made my way around the main pond, peepin on some other birds along the trail...
Brown Creeper
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
I was psyched to see the Black Phoebe is still hanging around...
A Red-tailed Hawk was perched along the slough sporting bright orange patagial tags. I believe that means he's an airport bird.
I completed the loop around the pond and still could not locate that damn goose. I decided to walk out onto the dock and check one more time- there he was snoozing in the shadows behind some Canada Geese...
He never woke up while I was there. I posted his presence to OBOL and some other folks when to see him and commented that he was very small, even smaller than the nearby Mallards. And rather than hanging with Cackling Geese as these random inland Brants tend to do, he was associating with Canada Geese and ducks. An interesting bird. Good times!
I scanned the geese quickly but couldn't find the goose I was looking for. A kingfisher posed rather nicely for me though:
I made my way around the main pond, peepin on some other birds along the trail...
I was psyched to see the Black Phoebe is still hanging around...
A Red-tailed Hawk was perched along the slough sporting bright orange patagial tags. I believe that means he's an airport bird.
I completed the loop around the pond and still could not locate that damn goose. I decided to walk out onto the dock and check one more time- there he was snoozing in the shadows behind some Canada Geese...
He never woke up while I was there. I posted his presence to OBOL and some other folks when to see him and commented that he was very small, even smaller than the nearby Mallards. And rather than hanging with Cackling Geese as these random inland Brants tend to do, he was associating with Canada Geese and ducks. An interesting bird. Good times!
Hi Jen, great collection of birds. I do love the cute little kinglets, they are both pretty birds. The Kingfisher and the Brown Creeper are cool birds. Great sighting of the Brant, I think they are more common here in the winter months. great shots, Happy Birding!
ReplyDeleteCool, Jen.
ReplyDeleteWhitaker is such a nice little place. The Phoebe is cool! I just can't get that excited about the Brant (not when there are Snowy Owls out there waiting for me!), but can appreciate your enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteAlright!
ReplyDeleteBrant is a solid find! I'm waiting for one to turn up inside Arizona, which means I may be waiting a while. I love that this bird just has the one-word name that's almost a person's name. Or, if one abides the Big Lebowski, it's the Philip Seymour Hoffmann character.
Anyway great shots and nice sightings!
Glad you found your Brant! Love the pair of Kinglets and Kingfisher!!
ReplyDelete