Sunday afternoon I went to a park without Katie.  Don’t tell her, she’ll never forgive me.  I needed some time to myself and I wanted to walk on some nature trails where they don’t allow dogs.

At this park there is a heron rookery, and the herons were all paired up on their nests high in the oak trees out in the middle of a shallow lake. (Click on the pictures to see more detail.)

There’s a boardwalk built through the lily pads and cattails where you can sit and watch the herons, and later in the season the egrets on their nests.  The most exciting time is when the youngsters begin to explore and test their wings.

But right now it looks like the nests are all occupied by pairs of herons, I don’t know if there are eggs in the nests yet, but  certainly there are a number of pairs getting ready to be parents.

As I was watching from the boardwalk there arose a screeching to the left – sandhill cranes make such distinctive sounds.  A pair of them flew right toward us on the boardwalk, then across in front of us and on into the marsh to the right.  This is where I got the hugely cropped photo that’s currently my blog header.  In the photo below you can see the legs of the bird as he/she descends into the cattails.  It was so cool!

THEN…on the way home I saw a pair of sandhill cranes feeding in a field near the road.  I turned around and went back.  They accommodated me and posed for quite awhile.

Aren’t they beautiful!

I had a great day on my own.  Katie had a great day with her Dad.

Win win.

🙂