Socially Distant Birding

     It's my last weekend of Maternity Leave. I return to working from home tomorrow, and oddly, I'm excited about it. Our little girl is so good, she enjoys playing on her little activity mat, napping, and just sitting where ever I am so I think it will make actually getting work done very possible. I'm really banking on a smooth transition back.

     I will miss our birding mornings, but there is always time for a birding afternoon at a nearby park, plus there is the weekend. Yesterday I visited the Marine Nature Study Area and it did not disappoint. The weather was not what it has been, making our walk enjoyable. We even did some socially distant birding with one of my coworkers who I have not seen from, maybe March? I can't remember.

     We had some great sights and it was nice to get out and "introduce" the kiddo to some new people. Upon our arrival, our walk was already off to a great start!

Being that this place is super strict about its visitors in how they interact with the landscape AND that this animal was SO FAR away that it is impossible to disturb, I don't feel bad sharing that we saw a GREAT HORNED OWL!
I didn't see my first wild owl till I was an adult, I hope that this kiddo will have many other owls in her future, especially when she is old enough to use binoculars and see them for herself.
This is uncropped at 500mm zoom from a boardwalk pathway.

This one is also at 500mm zoom, but also heavily cropped.
You can see just how good this bird camouflage is. With the naked eye, and even binoculars, it was a challenge to spy.

Always plentiful with the barn swallows here.

An impostor among the egrets...

I love a good boisterous (herring) gull.

Semipalmated plover were plentiful, more plentiful were the semipalmated sandpipers.

Is this akin to walking out of the bathroom with TP stuck t your heel?
This mussel was going for a ride with this yellow crowned night heron.

These greater yellowlegs were on the hunt...

They synchronized their tactic...

Heads down, bills open, and RUN!

There was some pay-off.

Not actually any lesser, a lesser yellowlegs.

A potpourri of juvenile birds.

A very cute lesser yellowlegs.

Green heron, on the hunt.

Birds controlled walkway traffic. Previous to this barn swallow, a great egret was perched here and no humans would pass. The bird almost knew it was a glamour shot session.
Then this barn swallow took its turn, again, traffic paused and everyone took photos until the bird called it.

An Eastern Kingbird family.

The middle bird had a lot to say.

It was nice to "socially distant" bird with another adult again.