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Peanut, "Wow, mom, now we can say we've been to all 50 states! What are we gonna do next?"

28 April 2009

Grandma's Birds



Grandma is dumbfounded that I've yet to mention the birds, and she's right. Pure neglect on my part. If only I were a professional nature photographer, I'd show you each and every one of the beautiful birds we've seen in Louisiana.

The swamp is loaded with different types of herons, egrets, ibis, osprey and the elusive owl. We never tired of watching them fly in and out of the 500 year old cypress trees or gum trees, but it was the large Yellow-crowned Night Heron who earned our respect.

We were mesmerized as we watched it construct a nest;
we're not talking mere twigs here, we're talking branches. It would fly by, land in a tree and we'd hear some chomping then a very large c-c-c-crack! as it successfully got it's piece. It'd soar past us, carrying the large branch over to its construction site.

But even on the freeway, we were distracted by the variety of birds! Forget crows and sparrows, there were flashes of red, yellow and blue as cardinals, warblers and bluebirds darted in and out of trees alongside the road. Yet it's the Red-headed Woodpecker I saw flying today, that stays with me. It's flight pattern had a unique rhythm, almost like poetry, dip, swaayyyyy, dip swaayyyyy. So brilliant in flight!

1 comment:

  1. How very cool! Are their nests as big as bald eagle nests (think of the exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo) It's hard for me to imagine a long legged bird like an egret sitting in a nest. weird.

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