Two kinds of crowned herons with superhero eyes

So in my busy life, I squeezed in some birding at White Rock Lake between work and bible study.
 I mentally prepared myself not to linger too long with the shore birds at the spillway and walk past into the hatchery.
Every time I pass the spillway, it is like a time trap and when I look up, it is too dark to go actual birding in the bushes. So this time I went to the spillway to start with and got some pictures of playful Least Sandpipers.

You can see how tiny they really are beside the coots. They look like little cotton balls. I tore myself from the Spillway ( which in hind sight really paid off) and then went past to the fish hatchery area. I was rewarded. I stopped a little ways past the entrance at a marshy area and some instinct told me to look closely. This has never failed me and when I looked, I could not believe my eyes. The Brightest coral legs stared me in the face. It had flamingo pink legs and a feathery bustle for a behind.

Its white cheeks and skulking long legs told me it was a Yellow Crowned Night Heron. Its coral legs told me it was breeding plumage. It was surrounded by a gaggle of crows and I remember reading that crows raid the nests of the herons. Sad but that's nature!

 Funny thing happened as I was trying to focus my camera, a young family ( human) comes up behind me and the guys voice behind me asks, maam, are you trying to photograph some wildlife. I was too tensed up focusing the camera to reply and he kept on repeating his question till I grunted an unfriendly 'yes' since I was perched one leg on a rock and another on a bush near the edge of the walking trail . Then the mans wife came along and said, don't disturb her and they walked off.

Later as  I went further inside the hatchery, I came across the same family and then I spoke to them and said, I did not mean to come across unfriendly but I was focusing and the camera was shaking. The lady said, yes I told him that you was in the zone and not to disturb you. They asked to see my pictures and the little kids loved my heron and said he had eyed like a superhero. It made me smile.

Then further into the hatchery I heard a loud series of quacks and knew some ducks were flying in and before my eyes the two wood ducks flew in. Then followed a merry leafy focus nightmare of a photo session. The ducks kept preening themselves and would tuck their heads in every time I clicked the camera button but I got some nice shots of a lovely female and her watchful male.

I was followed by a red cardinal who scolded me as I  went back to the spillway catching a few bob tails on the way.

Then back at the spillway on my way back, I paused to look since I felt I earned the right to look at some shories ( shore birds) and I was rewarded. Two Black Crowned herons jumped up and down on logs like they were giving speeches. There were great white egrets and the great blue heron in his own little pond. Someone told me there can only be one Great Blue in any small body of water. Two egrets were also having a face off. It looked like they had challenged each other to a duel near the spillway.

All in all a very rewarding day. I always wondered where the gulls went to. More and more as I see the spillway I see Great Egrets, Great Blue and now The black crowned and an assortment of plovers and pipers.

It was kind of funny seeing the Black and yellow crowned herons in the same day. The funniest thing was the way the kid said that the Yellow Crowned Night heron had super hero eyes. It made my day.