Friday 1 July 2016

[cobirds] Walden Ponds - Green Heron, Virginia Rail chicks and a moose?

Hello all -

This morning was one of my favorite kind of birding days - overcast with a light rain.  I knew it would be pretty quiet at Walden Ponds, and I managed to get there at a reasonable hour (for me, anyway).  I wanted to see if I could find the Green Heron that was reported there recently, and was hoping to see some other good stuff as well.  Well, it turns out the Green Heron was still there, I managed to get a pretty good look and a few photos before it moved to another part of the pond.  While standing in the same spot, I turned and looked into a small marshy area, and there was a juvenile Virginia Rail hopping around in the water at the base of some reeds.  I watched for a few minutes until it disappeared, and then moved a short distance to a better vantage point.  I quickly spotted it again working through the base of the reed stalks, managed to get a few photos, and when I put the binoculars up again, there were two of them!  I didn't get a picture of the two together, and didn't see an adult nearby, but the reeds were pretty thick, and these two were close to the edge of them.  Shortly after that, I decided to take a look at another pond which sometimes has a few wood ducks or other shy birds on it.  I approached it carefully, scanned the water a couple of times, but no birds.  While I was standing there, all of a sudden out of the reeds popped a young moose!  It was only about 25 ft away from me!  We were watching each other with a bit of caution, then I reached back and pulled out my camera, took a few shots, and slowly backed out of there.  It was definitely the makings of a good day! 

Happy birding (or moose watching)!

Jeff Parks
Boulder, CO

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