What: A green heron. I am told - by this blog, actually - that such tried unsuccessfully to nest in the Garden last year; I don't know whether they're giving it another shot this year, but Abbie and I saw one last week, and I got an even better look today. Really handsome birds, the green herons.
Where: Northeast section of the park; just standing in the field at first, but then flew into the trees.
When: Sunday, June 9th, 2013, ~2:00 PM
Observer: Matt
Conditions: Raining! Lightly.
What: A broken, half-eaten egg, in the pond. My suspicion is that it was a mallard egg - there is a brooding female on the island under the spoonbridge itself. She was still brooding today, so presumably the nest is not entirely compromised, but in another part of the pond there was this egg. The fault of a raccoon, perhaps? Or even a rat? A crow? I suppose a number of animals might raid a duck's nest. It is also possible that this was a storebought chicken egg that ended up in the pond for some reason or other; mallard eggs and chicken eggs look fairly similar, and though it does not seem reasonable that someone would put an egg in the pond, less reasonable things happen in public parks pretty much constantly.
Where: Under water just off the shore, northwest section of the Spoonbridge pond
When: Sunday, June 9th, 2013, ~2:00 PM
Observer: Matt
Conditions: Still raining.
Other notes: Robins galore out in the rain; a number of adults looking for flushed-out worms - I saw one female with one in her mouth, still writhing and wriggling - and a lot of juveniles of various ages, looking generally put out. The tadpoles are getting bigger, and there seem to be a thousand of them. And the ground squirrel hole I saw getting dug the other day has been filled in! I do not know by what or whom.
No comments:
Post a Comment