A walk in the park part 2: frankly, my deer...

Seen part 1 yet? If not, click here before going any further.

And now that everyone's caught up, part 2.

After taking a truckload of duck photos, I decided I should probably get a few pictures of the deer the populate the deer park as well.

This young male is standing with his forelegs in the small stream running through the park; he'd just taken a drink, and still had some water running off his chin:



Loved the way the ear was backlit in this shot:



Call me crazy, but I have a feeling that this doe is pregnant:



A couple of beauty shots:





As the article indicated, the park is a popular spot for families:





It turned out the ducks weren't the only birds spending time around the pond today—I also spotted some Cedar Waxwings flying back and forth across the water:



It's not a great shot of either, but I did manage to catch two waxwings in the same frame:



Not a great shot, but I liked the wing fan in this one:



I stopped by the post office on my way home, and had just finished backing out of my parking spot and turning around to head out when I spotted this Catbird. Because even though I'd already taken more than 350 pictures, how could I possibly resist when it posed so nicely for me?





Thus endeth another epic post. I'm back in Bennington again tomorrow, so it's entirely possible the ducks and deer will get some more face time...

A walk in the park part 1: make way for ducks

A multi-part post? On a Tuesday? Let me explain.

Actually, that would probably take too long. Let me sum up:

I spent the majority of my day today in Bennington, fulfilling my civic duty by serving as a juror in the Bennington District Court. I opted to spend the lunch break outside taking photos, as the court buildings are adjacent to the Bennington Deer Park. Knowing there'd be both ducks and deer to photograph, I brought along my camera. And... well, I may have gone a bit overboard. So I decided to just post the duck photos in this part. As far as I can tell the ducks are all mallards, either females or juveniles—their plumage is pretty similar, although it appears from my reading that usually a female's bill is more orange than a juvenile's. But as I'm by no means an expert, I'm not even going to try and label them as one or the other.

Paddling along:



I liked how the coloring of this photo came out:



I included this one because since it was one I took fairly early on you can still see the duck's head through the water; after about 20 minutes, they'd collectively stirred up so much silt that such shots were no longer possible:





How can you not love it when a bird does something like this right in front of you?









Chatting with its neighbor, apparently:



I've included this photo for one reason and one reason only—so I could say that for this shot I had all my ducks in a row:



Bottoms up:



More wing action:





Loved how they ended up in this curved formation:



Another one I really liked the coloring of:



A very lucky bit of timing, catching the duck's head emerging but not yet breaking the surface tension:



I liked how this reflection turned out:



And I chose this last one because of how well you can see the beads of water on its head:



And that does it for this half. For the rest of today's photos, just click here.

On the wing

Some more bird shots for you today, starting with a very lucky catch as a House Sparrow came in to land on my bird feeder this morning:



I liked the symmetry of how these Goldfinches were perched:



Before I returned home for the evening, I went over to Whimsy Pond for a bit to see what birds might be around. No kingfishers or mergansers in sight this time around, but I did get the chance to photograph a bunch of birds skimming over the surface of the pond. I know there are definitely some swallows in the mix, but I wasn't entirely certain about all of them—including the bird in this first photo:



Definitely a Barn Swallow here:



Again, no idea on this one:



Two ships passing in the night afternoon; I think that's a Yellow Warbler on the right:





A few of my shots even ended up being in focus:







Looking at all the dimples on the water's surface, you'd think it was raining when I took this shot. But as the reflection indicates, there were blue skies overhead. So I can only figure that they were caused by emerging insects instead:



Finally, a reflection I thought looked kinda nice.

Oh deer

A slightly smaller assortment of photos for you today, but they include a few that feature something you definitely don't see every day.

First up, though, a shot of a male House Sparrow as it came in for a landing on my feeder this morning:



I'm pretty sure that's a young House Finch coming in to join it:



I think it's a female House Sparrow that's looking at an incoming finch this time:





I really liked this silhouette with the bird on our office building's weather vane. That same backlighting meant I couldn't tell exactly what kind of bird it was, but judging by the beak I'd say it's a type of phoebe or flycatcher:



On my way home from work today I stopped by Mom and Dad's to join them for dinner. As we sat around beforehand, watching the baseball game, Mom noticed something coming across the lawn—it was a deer headed for the salt lick that sits up behind where the thistle feeder hangs. And before I'd even had time to get to the door with my camera, the doe was no longer the only creature out there worth photographing:



Getting to photograph one fawn was already much more than I could have ever hoped for. Being able to photograph two? Simply incredible:



Loved how they seemed to be walking in sync here:



And the mother enjoying her taste of salt:



Finally, a couple of Kaylee shots. First, Kaylee listening to Mom talk about normal things:



Then, Kaylee after Mom said the word "cheese":