The babies in the second barn swallow nest have hatched. They all look like they're in the midst of a bad hair day with all of their fuzz. At this age, they really don't look very much like their parents at all. There's nothing streamlined about them and their heads consist of virtually nothing but beaks, eyes, and fuzz.
The little ones seem to have a feeding strategy that consists primarly of "make yourself big and hold your beak wide open". When they think one of their parents is returning with a nice juicy bug to eat, some of them get so excited about it that they actually try to stand on top of their siblings in order to make themselves look bigger. Notice the baby to the left of the ones with gaping jaws though. He doesn't seem to be with the program.
Now, look at which baby the mother chose to feed. It would seem that the make yourself really big and go kind of loco strategy isn't working too well for the two eager birds on the right. Neither of them got the worm, so to speak. Maybe next time.
Since I was headed to park in the middle of a hot afternoon, I didn't think my chances of finding anything moving were very good. Animals are much smarter than humans when it comes to siesta time. They choose to rest during the hottest time of the day, while most of us choose to play in the heat. Never-the-less, I have to go to the park when the opportunity presents itself, even if my timing isn't too great. I had hopes though, as I spotted this northern flicker right outside of the front gate of my apartment complex and it was being very active and noisy.
Then I photographed this cedar waxwing through the window of the bus as the bus passed Winco. It, too, seemed to be active and noisy during the hottest part of the day. Spotting three different kinds of birds before I even reached the park seemed like a really good sign to me. When I arrived at the park though, it was eerily quiet. So quiet that I wondered whether there was a hawk or eagle in the area, but I didn't spot one.
I may not have been able to spot any birds, but I didn't have any trouble spotting people. The park was practically bursting at the seams with families investigating the boardwalk. Someone left this wonderful piece of artwork on the clipboard at the information kiosk. Thank you, so much! It was thoughtful of you to leave us a gift. I'll put it in the box with the bird nest and owl pellets that I'm saving for the future.
I don't know whether you'll be able to see this or not. My camera is about to go kaput again and it adamantly refused to focus on this beautiful little garter snake. I got very frustrated by my camera's refusal to behave, as I really wanted you to see this. This snake has blood-red stripes! I've found snakes in the park with blue stripes, green stripes, teal stripes, white stripes, and yellow stripes, and even two with red diamonds on their sides, but this is the first time that I've spotted a snake with a dark red stripe. I really got excited when I saw it, but then I really get excited every time I spot something new or different.
The lake is full of froglets now. I checked the grass very well and didn't see any frogs in the grass yet, but the tapoles are so close to being full-fledged frogs that it isn't even funny and they're just as cute as they can be. Tadpoles move in the water with a swishing back and forth motion, like a fish, but these froglets swim using all four limbs, like a person. I've seen them on three sides of the lake now. It won't be long before they start hopping out.
While I was looking for tadpoles, I spotted brand new eggs in the lake. I have no idea what laid these eggs. I know that dragonflies are laying their eggs in the lake right now. That's what they're doing when you see them dip the ends of their abdomens into the water. I don't know what dragonfly eggs look like though. I'll have to do some research on the internet and see what I can find out about them.
This little banana slug was half in and half out of it's hiding place. If I were him, I'd crawl back into the shade of my home until the sun wasn't so high in the sky. It was much too hot for a slug to be out sunbathing.
These are pacific trailing blackberries. Pacific trailing blackberries are native to this area. The berries are very small in both size and number. Himalayan blackberries are invasive plants that don't belong here at all, but they do produce huge berries in large numbers. Pacific trailing blackberries produce berries that ripen long before Himalayan blackberries. The Himalayan blackberries are currently in the blossom or hard green stage of development.
Everything with blossoms is busy with bees and wasps right now. There are a lot of different varieties of both collecting nectar from the blooms. Some of the bees are huge and fat, while others are petite and delicate. It's fun to just walk around and try to see how many different kinds of insects you can find busily collecting nectar.
If you do that, you'll discover that all of the thistles growing near the third bench from the old cabins are full of northwestern thatching ants tending their aphid ranches. Northwestern thatching ants are the ones with the big red heads. They herd aphids together and tend them like little ant cowboys. When the aphids are big and fat and full of nectar, the ants eat them.
Frogs are sitting around in most of the places that still have water. Some of the places where it was so easy to spot frogs in the spring have completely dried up now. There are also definite signs of shrinkage at Marlake as well. The wetland's looking a little stressed, from lack of any significant rainfall, with leaves beginning to turn brown or yellow and fall from the trees.
Speaking of falling, this skinny tree has fallen over the boardwalk on the short side of the boardwalk loop trail, in between the bench in front of the tree-well with all of the frogs in it and the beginning of the Brooklake spur. I'm 5' 2 1/2" tall and when I walked up to the tree, it met my face just a little above my nose, so please watch where you're going and don't run into this. I wouldn't want anyone to black an eye.
Teri I. Lenfest
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