I took a short run to a couple of my favorite places in town. The History Park and a nearby golf course. The owls are still at the history park but, photographically, they are pretty uninteresting. Owls sit very, very still for a long, long time. At least during the daytime.  So, no owl pictures today.  But, owls aren’t the only thing in the park.  I found a curious squirrel on one branch and a Sharp-shinned Hawk on another.   

After that brief visit, I headed off to a nearby pond on a golf course not too far away.   One of the water hazards has a small island which has become a rookery for cormorants and Great Blue Herons.  There are a lot of other birds around but, right now, those are the two that are nesting.  One of the cormorants was early since they have two unfledged juveniles to support but, they will soon be off.  There are others though still brooding.

On the water, the species were plentiful and active.  I decided to use the grebe and coot crossing as a header banner here but, there were several others that looked good.

Like this pair of Mottled Ducks (Anas fulvigula)

or, this trio of American Coots (Fulica americana)

but, in the end, the crossing looked best