North Lake Raccoons

 

Notch-eared Raccoon, North Lake

This morning I photographed my first GBGB bird of the season (a.k.a., black-throated gray warbler) in my late neighbor's oak tree. At first I mistook the bird for a chickadee, but even without my glasses on I soon realized that wasn't right. After taking a better look through binoculars I grabbed my camera to try to photograph it through the double-paned window. The shots I got are terrible, but they do clearly show the GBGB's distinctive markings.

The morning sighting got me excited enough that I decided to carry my compact camera on my morning walk since I would be passing through the Oak Woodlands and the Lily Pond. Although both those areas were surprisingly free of bird life, I spotted a small sparrow-sized bird foraging on the ground in the Fuchsia Dell and managed to get one shot that was clear enough to get an identification. It was my first ovenbird, well outside its usual range.

Later, instead of taking my usual bike ride I brought my full-frame camera to poke around North Lake, where the highlight for me turned out to be a family of six raccoons that were coaxed into the open by a guy who tossed them a handful of food, then walked away. A group of preschool kids got excellent views of North Lake's largest four-legged mammal.

Another guy showed up who the raccoons seemed to recognize. He told the kids that raccoons are related to dogs, bears, and pandas, which sounded fishy to me. Although all are members of the order Carnivora, raccoons are Procyonids, in the same family as ringtails, coatis, and kinkajous.

Although I didn't see any rare birds at North Lake, it's always good to see the black-crowned night herons when they're in town.

This one flew into some flowery bushes as I watched from the other side of the lake.

At first I assumed the heron was hunting, but then it looked like it might just have wanted a drink of water.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

I didn't notice this other juvenile until it flew out of some reeds, apparently to get away from me.

It wasn't very birdy when I was there, late in the morning, but I enjoyed trying to capture photos of what birds I did see, like this northern yellow warbler.

The house wren faked me out at first. Its chipping sound made me think it was a common yellowthroat.

The western warbling vireo is one of my favorite new species of the season since I suddenly seem to see them everywhere.

The coot was closing in on a morsel of food that someone had tossed into the water. Most people have learned not to feed the wildlife anymore, but there are always going to be hold-outs.

The pied-billed grebe chicks are the noisiest critters on the water at North Lake.

Ovenbird

I wondered why it was called the black-throated gray warbler, and apparently the females have white throats.

I often see birds in the crown of the oak next door and wish I could get a clear view of them from our bedroom window, but the window has a screen. (Before we got the screened window, we had mosquitos.)

* * *