Joy, we had a mallard nest in our side yard one year. One morning all the eggs were gone. I assumed it was a raccoon, but who knows?

Great photos and it’s great to see a practical outfit that you can walk in rough terrain in and still look stylish!

I love the story of your husband passing you a note while you were on zoom. I remember once in college (an urban campus) I was in a small history seminar course and a red tailed hawk landed on a branch just a few feet outside the window. I tried to hold my tongue but eventually I interrupted the professor to point it out! Not that they’re uncommon, but it was a neat chance to see one up close.

Yesterday I went to an event celebrating the new peregrine falcon chicks that just hatched on my campus. Amazing how they’ve come back from near extinction during my lifetime, and now there are so many near me that they’re fighting over territory. I’ve only seen the adults twice because I was working from home the past few breeding seasons, but now I’m inspired to bring my binoculars to work.

Sally, thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed the photos.

Greyscale, how wonderful to have a campus celebration for peregrine falcons! Here, one regularly hangs out on top of one of the casinos. The casino is surrounded by low buildings, so the falcon gets a good view of potential prey from there. We’ve gone to see it, but from a block away.

Wonderful pictures! I love owls. Owls live in the woods behind our house. Sometimes they sit near us. I love hearing them. "Who cooks for you?"
Your outfits look perfect for the occasion.

Fantastic pictures! Thanks for posting!

Our neighborhood is very built up, but green and watery enough for plenty of bird life. Not just corvids and pigeons, parakeets and woodpeckers too. Water fowl include mallards, mandarins, swans, moorhens, cormorants, and the famous heron who hangs around outside the local fishmongers…

Style Fan, thank you. I love owls, too. I had to look up “who cooks for you”, and it’s Barred Owls. We don’t have them here, but I saw them nesting when we visited family in North Texas a few years ago. We have seven species of owls here in our area, and I’ve seen six of them. You just can’t have too many owls.

Approprio, thank you. What kind of heron is it by the fishmonger? He sounds very enterprising!

JAileen, there’s this one big grey bird who’s been hanging out there for ages. A video went viral last year of him strolling into the fishmongers, bold as you like. I can’t find it just now, but I recognized the shop. I thought our man was an outlier, but no, it says here that the grey herons are all over the city, staking out the fish markets like some sort of feathery mafia. They have definitely become more prevalent around town - they may even have muscled out the seagulls. Did they just spy an opportunity, or did something happen to their habitat? Certainly no shortage of wetlands around here.

There are storks as well, but nowhere near as common.

https://www.theguardian.com/ci.....n-pictures