July 14th

[Shortsighted]

What a heat! 


We're staying in the water kids ... let's look for some shade.


Marsh wren




Fledgling yellow warbler



Hey guys, this looks like good nest-building mud!


Collecting mud

[Shortsighted]

 The kingbird chicks from the second nest must have fledged many days ago.  On my last visit they were almost indistinguishable from an adult kingbird.  I heard the gallinule cry out from the island opposite the observation mound and then I spotted it in the glare of the morning sun, further veiled by the general haze of the humid air.  Through my viewfinder it looked like cellophane had been stretched over the front of my lens.  Even so, the gallinule was out-of-view just moments later. 
 
 The young pied-billed grebe previously seen were on the west side of the pond, near the shoreline grass/reeds at about a third of the way up to the northern shoreline from my position  They took off across the water like a hydroplane as soon as they saw me, as if I could possibly be a threat from such a great distance.  Kids these days ... so neurotic.
 
 A kingfisher flew in from the north and landed on the same tree that supported the original kingbird nest, abandoned now for quite some time. It called out once and then headed eastward until it was out-of-sight.  This seems to be a very prestigious tree, used by blackbirds, waxwings, kingbirds, a sapsucker and robins.
 
 A GB heron also flew in from the north, eschewed the pond and continued southbound.  At about the same time I noticed two wood pewees in the low trees between the western berm and Reesor Rd.  They may have been fledglings because they remained well hidden within the leaves of the shrubs.  I could here a vireo in the distance.  No sign of the sora.   The site is very noisy because of the constant traffic on Reesor Road.  Loud trucks, motorcycles and thrush mufflers abound.  It really doesn’t matter what time of day it is, the traffic is always there.  I call it Reesor highway.  I also noted the other day that cans, bottles and containers had been thrown into the pond all around the observation mound, despite the very tall plants that almost choked-off the barely-there path between the highway shoulder and the mound. If you didn’t already know that there was a path it would certainly be easy to miss.  Everything is eventually ruined by people that don’t g-a-s.
 
I also returned to Rouge Beach Park very early in the morning to help offset the burden of the day’s heat but found the marsh (floodplain) very quiet.  No sign of a marsh wren or herons.  I noticed an approaching wood duck but then discovered that my camera lens was fogged-up from the intense humidity.  The camera was still at the car’s A/C temperature and then when I got out to walk the moisture just condensed onto every surface.  This lens fog persisted even after 15 minutes so I left.

Even at 7 o’clock in the morning there was constant pedestrian traffic and ABSOLUTELY everyone, without exception, was making noise by talking on their device, hand-held or Bluetooth, or just talking out loud if accompanied.  Some people were even playing music on their cellphone while walking.  One person was carrying on a conversation of their phone while also listening to a news report apparently from the same device.  Then there is the roar of passing GO trains, VIA trains and a low-flying helicopter.  I suppose the guy with the music on his phone could have at least played the theme from MASH.   “Incoming!”  I CAN’T SEEM TO GET AWAY FROM NOISE!