I haven’t been doing much except working…no trips or adventures to share…but there’s still beauty all around. Take these pictures from the parking lot at work. Love the blue, blue skies of this time of year.
Taken just before sunset…the golden hour was just beginning.
Yesterday I managed a few hours with the camera before I had to be at work. My first stop was the Herring Run aka Oliver Mill Park. I haven’t seen the Great Blue Heron since I got the shot of him eating the fish. It’s been very busy over there with lots of people fishing and even swimming. Plus they have the new bridge which lets people get even closer to the marsh so I don’t know if it’s moved on or if I just keep missing it.
No Big Blue today either but there were a couple of Canada Geese families.
After following those little goslings and their parents around a bit I moved on to The Grist Mill Pond in Plymouth. I wanted to check out the Swans and see if they had any little swans yet. The swan pair in Brockton hatched some cygnets so I thought the Plymouth swans might have hatched too.No luck. They were still on the nest but there’s going to be plenty of Canada Geese. There were 3 more families here and some had quite a few goslings!
What a perfect day for Mother’s Day! Yesterday the sun was shining, there was a breeze and the temps reached 80 degrees in many places. My kind of weather. Of course I couldn’t actually enjoy it. I was at work for 12 hours. Yup my Sunday shift starts at 7:30 am and ends at 8pm. I don’t mind , really but yesterday was just too nice to be missed completely.
So when my shift ended at 8 PM I stepped out into a purple tinted twilight. I had to hurry. The sun was just about gone and the light was fading fast but Plymouth Harbor was calling me.
I got there in time to snap off a couple of pictures. I didn’t even have time to set up the tripod! But one might be called a “keeper”. Hope you like it.
It’s not quite On Golden Pond which was a story of human love and caring that was played out in a beautiful setting. No, but what I witnessed at the Grist Mill Pond in Plymouth on Sunday had all the earmarks of devotion and love but in the animal world.
When I arrived at the pond Mr. Swan was putting on quite the display. At first it just appeared that he was a bad-tempered if beautiful bird.
He was expending a lot of energy chasing every goose that crossed his path.
He was one seriously nasty bird!
He even took them on in pairs!
Smaller birds like the mallard stayed far out-of-the-way under the trees along the bank.
The cormorant took a break from his fishing to get out of the way and dry his feathers.
Eventually I found the cause of Mr. Swan’s angst.
It appears the Mr. Swan is going to be a dad. On the far side of the pond was a nest. It was almost completely camouflaged until Mrs. Swan raised her head. As I was getting the “long lens” to get a picture of this domestic scene, Mr. Daddy Swan returned home.
You could almost believe you heard “I’m home dear”! 🙂 Both Swans began preening and then set to work reinforcing the nest with weeds and muck from the pond. (And we thought we had a hard day at the office !)
Activity on the pond returned to normal.
Off near the bank, under the trees, a shy female duck joined the Mallard as well.
The robin returned to the bank to resume his hunt for a meal.
Looks like I’ll be keeping a look out for baby swans…they’re ugly ducklings aren’t they?
I got the Bluebird at Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Cardinal photo still isn’t quite where I want it to be but it is getting closer. Got this one at The Grist Mill Pond in Plymouth. He surprised me. I had just taken the camera out of the car and I turned around and there he was. I had about 2 seconds to try to get a picture before he flew off. Silly red birds just keep teasing me!
