July 8th - Reesor (lower) Pond revisited

[Shortsighted]

When I took out the garbage this morning there was not the slightest breeze ... absolutely wind-still and thick humidity, like a jungle.  In the woodlot across the street I may have heard, or imagined hearing a kookaburra.  Then, were those monkeys in the trees?  Nahh!   I drove over to Reesor (lower) pond because someone spotted a Common Gallinule with two chicks a few days ago.  I did see one gallinule swim from the western shore to the central grass patch but then it disappeared.  Also saw a Virginia rail fly across the same stretch of water in the reverse direction.  There were several juvenile pied-billed grebe on the other side of the pond.  Also spotted a juvenile Yellow-bellied sapsucker,  Chipping sparrow,  Swamp sparrow,  Eastern kingbird (still one nest with two chicks),  House finch, Green-backed heron flyover and one kingfisher (out of phot0 reach).  I did NOT see gallinule (Moorhen) chicks.


Common gallinule


Yellow-bellied sapsucker


Green-backed heron


Dragonfly tail sticking out of chick's mouth


Eastern kingbird

[Shortsighted]

 The heat was intense.  The sun seemed especially well-stoked and sometimes the slight breeze dropped and at those moments I feared a meltdown.  Why would I revisit Reesor (lower) Pond under such intense conditions?  I’m a slave to impulsive behaviour.  I approached the observation mound very gradually so that I wouldn’t spook anything interesting that might be nearby.  It’s a good practice but it was unnecessary on this occasion because the pond was unoccupied, ... not even swans, or mallards. 
 
 Then I saw something small move on the grassy island across the immediate water gap.  My first guess was that it was a sora.  Seen through my lens, the creature was indeed a lone sora.   It was walking on the mud adjacent to the water’s edge.  By the time I positioned myself for a better shot it was gone.   There is very little available mud to explore.   The water itself is probably too deep for a sora.  A flycatcher caught my attention because it wasn’t the expected kingbird.  A willow flycatcher is in for a spell of trouble if a kingbird sees it.  Ah, back to the sora.
 
I sat down with my boots in the water and then remembers that one boot has a hole.   I waited a whole ten minutes, until the heat became unbearable, but the sora never returned.   I heard a shriek about 30 feet to the south of the sora’s tiny mudbank and decided that it must be where the C. gallinule was hiding.   I had plenty of company because there were dragonflies everywhere:  Widow skimmer,  12-spotted skimmer, whitetail, and amberwing.  I guess that the kingbird(s) were loving that feature.




Willow flycatcher






Sora




Kingird nest #2 ... young bird maturing quickly