Herman made me go back to the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning after he posted a picture of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird on Flickr.  I took the Beast and set up in front of the Morning Glory vines where he saw the bird.  I waited about a half hour, but no hummers came.  So I took a picture of where the hummer should have been!

(Note:  Someone else stood watching all morning long and didn’t see a hummer.  I guess maybe Herman’s bird was a passing migrant.)

As exciting as it would have been to photograph a hummer at Circle B, I didn’t want to sit waiting for one all morning!  So I headed down the newly-opened Marsh Rabbit Run trail in search of my Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.  He was supposed to pose for me again, since I had The Beast in tow.  Silly bird, he didn’t cooperate.  But I saw a juvenile Osprey posed nicely in a tree:

Right now, with the summer sun angle, the light is pretty good on the left side of Marsh Rabbit Run.  I noticed that the juvenile Little Blue Herons, who have been hanging out at “Four Corners” all year looking very white, are finally starting to get their blue feathers.  They look a little silly in their in-between state.  This one caught a fish and I managed to click the shutter as the fish was in mid-air…

There was a question on Flickr about whether Circle B is covered in yellow flowers yet.  Nope, not yet!  The water levels are very low.  Most of the lake on Wading Bird Way is almost filled in, with little islands of green showing.  The ponds off the first half of Heron Hideout are all but filled in.  The side towards the lake has been dry all summer long, and the grasses that have grown there are as tall as I am!  We need a good tropical depression to come and sit over us for a few days.  Emily’s not going to do it for us.  Note that I said depression, nothing more…and it should come on a Monday, so as to not interrupt Saturday photography!  :)

When I got to the Wading Bird Way trail, a Wood Stork and a pair of Common Moorhen babies got my attention.  I didn’t want to scare the babies away by lowering the tripod, so I hand-held the Beast, using my knee to stabilize it.  The Moorhen babies have such big feet!

Herman and I walked together some on the return trek across Marsh Rabbit Run.  We came across a raccoon who was very intent on eating something in the grass.  At first Herman guessed it was a turtle nest (sorry Rich), but as we moved closer, the raccoon moved further away but continued to find stuff to eat in the grass.  Again I hand-held The Beast and got a coon’s eye view of the hungry guy…

So it was a quiet, but good, morning at Circle B.  I’m ready to see my first migrant warbler, though!!

Bird Species List (20 total): American Coot, Anhinga, Bald Eagle, Black-Bellied Whistling Duck, Boat-tailed Grackle, Common Moorhen, Downy Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Limpkin, Little Blue Heron, Mourning Dove, Northern Bobwhite (heard), Northern Cardinal, Osprey, Red-winged Blackbird, Sandhill Crane, Tricolored Heron, White Ibis, Wood Stork