Bird Heaven

There was a Bird Sanctuary near the cabin where we stayed with Darrell and Jess, and the area was like Bird Heaven! A big lake, smaller ponds, and big trees on the shore made for great bird habitat. I saw and photographed about 10 kinds of birds that I didn't have pictures of before, so that made me a happy girl!

One morning I went to a pond early and saw about 30 pelicans, and some cormorants, grebes and the ususal pigeons all crowded close together in the centre of the pond. The pelicans and cormorants particularly seemed to hang out together, often sunning themselves on a rock together.

These are Double-crested Cormorants.
They are big birds, but quite a bit smaller than pelicans.
After swimming, they often stand in the sun with their wings open to dry off,
as you see one of them doing.

My first picture of a Yellow Warbler.
There were many there, and they loved to sing.
The place was full of birds, singing and flying from tree to tree.
We wondered why we didn't see any crows or magpies.

There is a western kingbird on the peak.
Double click if you want to see it closer.
I do have close-ups of them, but I kind of liked the roofline is this picture.

The weather was hot and we had a beautiful sunset.
It was a highlight of this trip to see so many birds.
I would take pictures of them, and then Darrell and I would look through our various bird books to identify them.
We value our time with Darrell and Jess after not seeing them all the while they were in Africa.