Having heard about a storm water pond (Monihan Drain) in the city's west end that was visited by many birds we decided to check it out. On first view it was underwhelming, but after an hour's visit, we had a lengthy list of different birds.
Egrets, great blue herons, kingfisher and cormorants. Also a flock of red-winged blackbirds, ring-billed gulls, terns, a very shy juvenile black-crowned night heron plus others.
The great blue herons were not always in the best photographic position.....
The egrets, when not fishing, were preening.
There were about 6-8 cormorants, all but one were females. Their wings are not designed as well as other birds for flying so they need to take a run at it to get in the air.
On a second visit later in the month the variety of birds was not quite as good, but the numbers were overwhelming - hundreds of Canada geese had flown in from a nearby corn field to relax.
One of the egrets flew up onto a rock and was not amused with their pond having been over run.
(There was a (greater?) yellowlegs flying around and apparently settled momentarily near the egret's rock at one point, but was not noticed until someone (not me😟) was looking at their pictures later.)
The geese would arrive in small groups and gradually fill up the pond.
Incoming......
In a more secluded area, with fewer geese, two egrets were getting ready to look for lunch
But there were more than just birds. Highbush cranberries, burst milkweed pod and on the second visit - wooly bear caterpillars all over the place.
