October 5, 2005

Well, it's overdue to report that this otter has been hanging around the footbridge area for almost a month. Not every day, but pretty regularly, so keep an eye out.

Here's a Cooper's Hawk that has been sighted a number of times near the Rookery Pond. I tried to get a better photo...

....but it was immediately chased out of the area by a pair of Red-tailed Hawks, one of which was this dark morph, also a regular in the same neighborhood.

Now a series of photos of a female Acorn Woodpecker chipping out a new nest – we're looking at the left-most of two prominent snags north of the Rookery pond, which is now being colonized by woodpeckers from the group by the granery trees. The female is at the nest entry, while the male is perched on the limb above.

Now the female is in the nest, chipping away.

The female has backed out (the nest is not yet big enough for her to turn around in) and is tossing the sawdust to her right. Shortly thereafter, the male departed.

The female is back in, digging. The male has returned with an acorn. He walked around to the other side of the trunk and tapped it into a hole for storage.

At Cattail Swale, a Snowy Egret scratches an itch.

At trailside, a juvenile Fence Lizard runs up a stalk of dead hemlock. We saw an adult two days ago (compare the relative size of the head).

Here's another angle. A lot to see on a single walk around the South Marsh Loop.