We made it to Mud Lake twice in August. There were one or two great blue herons to be seen, no black-crowned night herons. Wood and mallard ducks were plentiful and warblers were passing through again on their way south.
The wood ducks are in moult (so are the mallards but it really doesn't show except for the lack of a green feathers on the head of the males). The adult male wood ducks in molt look similar to the juveniles except the adults have a red eye and a coloured beak. The female and male juveniles are easy to tell apart. No white chin strap on the female, and a developing white eye patch on the female.
adult, in molt, and juvenile male wood ducks
male and female juvenile wood ducks
Our second visit, only a week later than the first, produced adult males showing signs of getting a fresh set of feathers. One or two seemed to have regained their full colour.
A good number of birders come to Mud Lake to see the warblers in the spring and early fall. I have trouble identifying the warblers, let alone get a decent picture as they are so flighty. (Scroll over the picture to see the ID for the warblers.)
Bay-breasted warbler (juvenile or female)
Yellow warbler
A female cardinal wasn't as hard to photograph as she seemed a little curious about us, maybe hoping we might have some seeds?
We discovered there are (at least) two wild turkey family groups at Mud Lake this year. While walking around the back of the water filtration plant, we spotted mum and a group of juveniles inside the fence. We assumed that was Gertrude and her family. Then we looked behind us on the narrow trail and another group emerged.
Raccoons tend to be nocturnal creatures so it was their sleep time when we happened up on another photographer with his camera aimed up at a broken off tree trunk some 30 feet in height. But one of the kids (apparently there are three) and mum were moving around a bit.
Mushrooms were popping up with some fresh rain.
A few flowers were blooming.
Queen Anne's Lace in "bud"
Golden rod
Pickerelweed
Arrowhead
Touch-me-not (Impatiens)
More signs of the coming autumn were the fall colour of a few trees that always seem to turn early, plus thistles having gone to seed. Another sign of fall is the rain/dew drops on the wild strawberry plants. I suspect the water drops are there during the summer too, but I tend to see them only in the fall.
