Mallards

Well, we have been seeing a pair of mallards in the creek in our backyard. Perhaps they will build a nest nearby? Oh, I hope I see baby ducks again! I did once, and they were so cute! They're all fuzzy and yellow with brown stripes. It's not random, and each one is a little different, but I don't know how else to explain it. When we saw the babies, I was about 7, and we all thought we were going to catch one!:) But mom said we couldn't. (I kinda wish I did, they were irresistible!)

Faraway mallards.

Male and female closeup.

Swimming ducks.

Pretty male!

Closeup of a female.

Eating something.....Algae perhaps?

Migrating birds

So, this post is about all the new birds i'm seeing during migration. The greenish gray birds are ruby crowned kinglets. They are so tiny and they're at least two and a half inches long! And the best part about them is that they're really not afraid of much. You could be two feet away from them and they won't fly away like other birds. (But they won't sit on your finger.) Too bad they're only migrating. So adorable! Oh, and ALL of these birds are migration only.

White-throated sparrow.

White-throated sparrow's back.

Ruby-crowned kinglet. This one's crown is actually a stripe.

Here's a real crown! 

FLYING female yellow-rumped warbler.

There's the warbler again. Kinda looks like a sparrow.

Our walk

Last Saturday my mom and I went on a two hour walk, and it was the best walk of my life! We went into the field beside the walking trail we usually go on, followed a deer trail that led into the woods, and found a secret pond. Near the pond there was some trees that had been chewed down by beavers, and we think we found a beaver print! The prints kind of look like small dog prints. We also heard some frogs and saw some geese and ducks. We saw a new bird called a yellow rumped warbler and there was another bird that I only see at my grammy's. It's called an Eastern Phoebe. It has an interesting way of eating. It does a behavior called hawking in which the bird sits on a branch waiting for an insect to pass by, then it grabs the insect and flies back to the same branch.

This is a hollow tree we found. It has a big hole on one side and a small hole on the other side. 

My hand.

Some deer poop.

A deer track on the trail.

Me walking on the deer trail.

A chewed tree.

Some more deer poop.

Close-up of a chewed tree.

Junk in the forest.

More chewed trees!

The big pond.

Geese in the pond.