Sunshine!! Salem and I took one of our normal routes through the park today and I was lucky enough to get very close to the great blue who hangs out around one of the ponds. It was roosting on the trunk of a fallen tree and I sat on stump about 20 feet away watching it alternate between snoozing with its enormous beak tucked down under its chest feathers and twisting its very flexible neck to groom those feathers. And then I caught this by pure accident. I like to think it was a lazy yawn.

Also there was a turtle on one of the logs, catching some rays, a couple of flickers at their usual post at the top of a snag, and lots of ducks. Then there was the swarming of the swallows. I have only seen them do this one other time. It wasn't a big swarm, just a few dozen, zipping this way and that, like children amped up on sugar and excitement. 

The last interesting thing I saw was a small tree that fell over the trail. You could tell that it was cut down by a beaver (or 2). I wonder if I sat there tonight, if I would see them trim it and drag it off...