I've Been on Another Owl Hunt

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Today I am joining Nicole at Friday Face Off and Gillena at her Friday Lunch Break.

   Last Monday I shared some photos of the Long Eared Owl I saw last week. (Link is here Going On Another Owl Hunt.) My friend Deb was hoping to see the Long Eared Owl after I shared my photos with her, so the other day she and I went off  on another  owl hunt. It was one of those days when all the birds seemed to be hiding, at least at the state reservation where the owls were to be found.

   We did see one owl, but as you can see in this next photo, he/she has great camouflage. The owl almost looks like the tree trunk. Thankfully there was a birder there with better spotting skills than either of us had and who pointed him out to us.

    But at least Deb, who had never seen a wild owl before, did spot him.  After the owl event we decided to head on down to the Parker River National Wildlife Preserve which is only about 15 minutes away from Salisbury State Reservation. The wildlife preserve is out on Plum Island, and you might remember  the very snowy photos I showed when Deb and I visited there earlier this year. (Here is that link if you're interested: Snowy Nature Reserve.)

    Being at the shore, the snow is all gone there, and we decided to stop at the main headquarters to see if there was anything special we should know about. There wasn't, but they did have this fun drawing out in front of the building. There are faces here for Friday Face Off.

   I can't say it was the best birding day, but even so it was really nice to be outside, see what we saw, and also get a little walk in too. Mostly we saw Canada geese and seagulls. It seemed like there were 1000’s of each (although not in my photos) species, but probably I am exaggerating abit.

    At the end of the road, we parked and went walking. 

    There were a couple of swans in the salt pan lake located near the tower. Unfortunately the path was chained off and had signs that said area closed. I couldn't get close enough to see the bills so whether these are Mute Swanson or Trumpeter swans I can't really tell. But I did learn the difference between the 2.

   Afterwards we walked a relatively short boardwalk trail. It was just over a mile (1.6 km) loop.

At one point the boardwalk was over a very wet area, probably wetter than normal with the spring melt. I thought the view through the water looked interesting.

   A side trail said it took us out to a marsh view. However, the view was blocked by some invasive growth.

  This Phragmites has taken over a lot of the wetlands in the overall general area. It forms these thick stands of tall reed grass which chokes out the native plants. It did make for some interesting photos, but that doesn't mean it's a great plant to have growing in the area.

    I don't know if these native cattails stand a chance.

   When we got back to the parking lot, there was a small group of people who had spotted a Woodcock .

   It was hard to photograph him because he was  nestled in some brush, plus there were some tall people who made it hard for this short person (me) to get a good view. This was the best photo I snapped, but he's there. Even if this photo has a lot to desire. 😐

  Afterwards we headed out as the afternoon was getting on.  I'll finish this post with one last photo.

  More geese. 😏

I'm away this weekend for a  family event, so have a great next few days and start to the new week.