Yes! The return of the Creature Feature feature of my blog!
I spotted this guy stalking around in the shade and assumed she was a Great Blue Heron:

But I later spotted a Green Heron, so that’s probably who I had seen; those can be hard to see in the trees:

Osprey were at work:

It’s the time of year when we have Great Egrets here:

I’ve remarked about the difficulty of getting good pictures of our Belted Kingfishers, because they’re small and fast, but this one hung around, visible, in a tree on the edge of the lake:

And I Just Happned to be shooting when he took off:

Fun fact: that white spot you see on her face is not an eye, it’s just a little patch of white feathers. I wonder if that might be a diversionary tactic, making the casual observer think the bird is looking in a direction he’s not.

And Now, what you’ve all been waiting for, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture! Three in fact!

Once again, I had the camera out and shooting when the bird took off, and got a lot of pixels on this one:

Nideevee gozu’! (somehow it seems more appropriate to wish a wild person well in a language of people who understand and respect Nature).