Slow Summer Birding

I haven't been out much the last week but activity seems pretty typical for mid-summer. Lots of young birds coming to the feeders with parents. The noise at times is incredible with all the begging calls. It does look like the chickadees and cardinals had a good nesting season.

I took my kids canoeing a couple of times this week and had fun seeing how close we could drift up to birds along the shoreline. The Canada Geese were oblivious to us and the Great Blue Herons were more interested in catching dinner. We had nice close-ups of Great Egrets and Wood Ducks along with lots of fly over swallows and gulls. My oldest is getting really good at observational skills as long as it doesn't have anything to do with chores. He spotted a soaring Red-tailed Hawk over the treeline along the lake.

Nothing really beats floating in a canoe on a summer afternoon and watch your kids get excited by the simplest things.