See who came birding with me

On my Lunch break today, I spotted DJ an old friend of mine from ToastMasters walking way ahead of me up the path. Later I encountered her on a largely bird free birding hour but she named some of the pretty wildflowers for me:

These are winecups. such a pretty name:

Thats firewheel or Indian Blanket.

Then we came across someone else who was watching the birds along with us. He was watching intently:

Scary isnt it. But its not a cottonmouth, its a yellow bellied water snake and has no poison though I still dont want to be bitten by it.

She pointed out that a pair of mallards had started hanging out at the pond.

So yes it was not totally bird free. I just did not see them , I heard a lot of birds. I only saw the silent ones.

Sweet visit to Bittern Marsh in LLELA The Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area

Today I decided to go back to LLELA. Yesterday I had tried to go but since Jones road was closed and I was unfamiliar with the area, I turned left on Jones Road from Kealy and ended up at Lake Park yesterday instead. Today I called up and the lady told me that Kealy road dead ended on Jones and I had to turn right for LLELA. It would cost me 5 dollars to get in and I knew it would be five by the time I battled freeway traffic and got to LLELA. It was 5:20 when I reached (Thank you DFW traffic). The ladies at the gate booth were very nice and gave me a map. The lady there said Oh I see you already have a map. She had sharp eyes and spotted my Lake Park map from yesterday lying in the car and then she said Oh you have the camp ground map. She then gave me the LLELA map and when I asked her where I needed to go bird watching since I only had an hour, she said to go all the way to the end of the road and then cross over some rails and go to Bittern Marsh. I told her that that was where my research also told me to go. She said the gate closed at 7 and I may get a citation from the ranger if I was later than 7.
Bummer that meant I had about an hour to go birding.
I headed to the gate ( she said go as far as you can go and then you can go no further). I reached the furthest point and crossed over the rail and headed to Bittern Marsh Trail. Right away I spotted some lovely lark sparrows and took pictures. Also some rough winged swallows.

A small sign told where I was otherwise it was hard to know. I went over a small single rail bridge and then down a smaller descending set of steps and found flowing water.

There were lots of great egrets and great blue herons milling around.

Some college students headed to the other side of the river from bittern marsh and there was one lone fisherman. I headed inside and photographed an unusual looking bird that turned out to be a tree stump. There were birds far away that i could not photograph as the camera kept focusing on the leaves instead. When I see great leaf shots ( leafers) I always think to myself, is this a bird shot that missed and focussed on the leaf instead.

I saw egrets and herons high on the trees like it was the most natural thing in the world to perch on the tops of trees and then I spotted a lovely red bellied woodpecker.

There were European Starlings on the trees as well as cedar waxwings. I always scan the tops of the trees by occasionally standing still and turning around and when I did I saw a large hawk like figure on the top of a bare branched tree. It was far away and across the water ( isnt it always). At first when I saw it, it looked like it had a crest, the head looked wierd. Maybe a crested caracara???????Later when I reviewed the pictures I realized it was the Osprey. Strange cause I had been reading about it last night. Its also called the fish hawk and so it makes sense it was near the water and looking for fishes. Thanks to my camera, I could make out the bird was an Osprey ( a lifer). It looked like a balding old man from that distance. A very unusual bird. It shows us how the distance from which we view a bird makes things look different. The mustache of the bird looked like a receding hairline of an old man. Thanks to the

 camera I could see the light speckled breast band of the bird like a stately necklace.

Then I heard an unholy yelping sound and realized in a bit that it was gulls kettling and yelling at me. There were ring billed gulls ( ringers) and franklins gulls screaming overhead. I came to one small puddle and crossed it but the next one was too deep and I did not want to take a chance. I bid good bye to the gulls and took some distant shots .

At any rate my phone alarm dinged and told me it was time to head back anyway. So I turned back and as I came out I think I saw a purple finch and his female. I am not sure of the ID.

Anyway it cost me over an hour of driving and 5 dollars for about an hour of viewing, but I got to see four life birds and I learned that I would love to come back to Bittern Marsh and see the eponymic Bittern for which the Marsh is named. I got home safely and decided to pen this blog before I made up enough excuses not to.