Day 19.230: Eagle Marsh revisited

I made two other brief visits to Eagle Marsh - one at sunset on my way back to the hotel and the other in the morning on my way to the airport. Here are a few photos from the evening:

Sunset meadows

Great egret

American black duck

American robins

And some more from the morning:

Eastern cottontail

House sparrow

Song sparrow

Northern cardinal (state bird of Indiana)

Eastern phoebe

Common starling

Gray catbird

Double-crested cormorant

Mallards

Purple martin

Great egret

Gray catbird

I think this might be a young swamp sparrow

Day 19.229: Eagle Marsh Nature Preserve

This preserve was less than ten minutes away from my hotel and I managed three short visits there. The first was the longest and most successful (on the afternoon I arrived). This is some of what I saw there on that visit:

The marsh

I think this is a very strikingly colored red-tailed hawk

The most exciting sighting were several red-headed woodpeckers. This one carried this large cicada to the top of this dead tree...

...and deposited it down into it (presumably feeding young in a nest)

Red-tailed hawk

Eastern kingbird

Great egret

I think this is an olive-sided flycatcher. I wish it had turned around so I could see its olive sides.

Great egret

I saw a flash of blue as some birds disappeared into a thicket. Only one stayed for a photo and it was anything but blue despite being an indigo bunting (female)

Northern leopard frog

Monarch

Red-tailed hawk

Tall ironweed

Hollow Joe-Pye weed

Day 19.228: Home; rewind

I’m home and I have various things to report from my trip but first here’s the rest of my photos from our nature group outing from last week (apart from the previously reported marbled godwit). 

Double-crested cormorants

Dowitchers. We identified at least one as short-billed (by sound) they may all have been but it is hard to say

Greater yellowlegs

Cooper’s hawk

Great egret

Osprey with a fish

The light was dying by the time we left - but a good showing and two more birds for my life list since the only dowitcher I’d confidently identified before was the long-billed. 

Day 19.227: Noisy in the city

Everywhere I’ve gone in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana over the last two evenings there have been honey locust trees absolutely ringing with the sounds of cicadas. They were loud enough to drown out the noise of the nearby traffic. Take a listen!