Nature Notes: Trying to blend in

I almost swept the katydid off my door's window thinking it was a leaf but then I saw the legs.

If the katydid had been in my yard it would have blended in with the leaves but the window wasn't good for that.

The mourning doves blend in so well on my deck that I frequently don't notice them when I first look out.

Their feet are the only noticeable thing with a quick glance.

The female cardinal above was noticeable but not quite as flashy as the male below. The male cardinal is still in a transitional stage so not as flashy as he'll be as an adult in winter feathers.

They have finally decided to post Shelley Lake with signs discouraging people from feeding the ducks and geese.

In spite of the sign I saw a family feeding the ducks.

Even though the lake didn't use to have signs about feeding the wildlife, it always bothered me that people would feed them in the summer but never in the winter when it was cold.

I've never fed the geese and ducks at this lake but when it's especially cold I've thought it might help them if I got the kind of food they needed.

It never made sense to me that people feed them in the summer but don't do it in cold difficult weather.

When I walked at the lake Friday, I didn't see as many Canadian Geese as I usually do but there was a variety of different ducks.

I'm used to seeing various vertical objects in the lake.  Some are connected to the dam mechanisms while other vertical objects are parts of trees that get lodged upright when they fall during storms.

I zoomed in on something I thought was a tree limb lodged upright in the water.

I never would have thought of great blue herons as blending in but this one had me fooled from a distance.

I was glad I had enough zoom to get a closer look or I would have thought it was just a tree limb.

Once it started stretching out its neck it was unmistakeable.

I took a zillion pictures of it.

They are such graceful and gawky birds all at the same time.

One of these days I hope to catch a shot of one with a fish in its mouth.

I've seen them catch fish but never got the shot.

I always love to see tall grasses with their seeds .

Usually I see some Canadian Geese in these grasses at the lake but not this time.

Although we don't reach peak fall colors until November where I live, there are already a few leaves changing early.

The brown thrashers have been hogging the bird baths on my deck.

They are fun to watch.

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