It seemed to be green heron day at the ponds..... Seven, possibly nine green, herons, throw in three great blue herons and an egret to make it complete. And that was within 10 minutes of arriving!
One group of green herons seemed to consist of a parent and three juveniles. The parent up in a tree and two of the juveniles looking up towards him/her.
Then the two on the log were joined by a third juvenile
Meanwhile, twenty yards away, were two more , one fishing, one preening, sharing their space with a turtle
And a loner up the shoreline. Two others were seen at the far west end of the ponds, one flew in and could have been one of the seven previously seen, the other, with its crest up could have been a "new" one, or also perhaps just flew up the ponds
One of the green herons posed on the dam at the east end for a few minutes
The egret was in a dead tree at the east end and flew off to fish at the west end soon after we arrived
One of the great blue herons came up from the reeds on the near shoreline, flew low across the pond and then went vertical up to a branch on the dead tree the egret had been on a few minutes before
A few mallards were at the eastern end relaxing, along with two painted turtles
A family of very young mallards were swimming about in the western end
Wild bergamot was in bloom, a few blossoms already finished, while some Japanese beetles had been working to finish some leaves
