Well today’s photographs are coming from this morning’s walk up to Boomer Lake. I decided that I wanted to try to get to the lake just as the sun was coming up in hopes that I’d catch the herons and egrets at some of their usual spots.

I did managed to catch the great picture of the pink and red sunrise over the lake and the neighborhood on the other side (trust me the houses are there). Though it didn’t take that long for the colors to fade into a cloudy blue morning before allowing the sun to shine through. As I walked further into the park and out onto the one large deck I noticed that there was an heron in an unusual spot.

The heron was roosting on the branch from a submerged tree. Years ago, Boomer Lake was emptied because the city wanted to redirect the traffic and build a new bridge. After the construction was completed, they were going to remove the trees and slowly fill the lake back in–well Mother Nature had a different idea—we had some major storms over the course of a few weeks and months and the lake filled itself and the trees just slowly died off to where all you see now are the occasional branches sticking out that birds and turtles perch on.

Shortly after the sun was fully up and I had walked to another finger overlooking the lake, I decided to see if there were any herons fishing around some of the trees that grow in water, and I managed to capture this photo:

I managed to spot probably the third great blue heron on the lake trying to fish in the privacy of this tree. This seems to be a favorite hangout for the herons in terms of morning fishing (it’s the second time I’ve managed to capture a picture of one fishing/hunting in this area).

One thing I love about Boomer Lake is wildlife that you can see when walking–on my morning walks so far this year I’ve seen a water snake (and yes I’m still looking every time I’m up there to see if I can spot another one), rabbits (today was one of the few times I haven’t seen at least one rabbit on my walk), the ducks and geese (these guys are almost as common for me to see as the herons), the great blue herons, the egret, the green heron (which I’ve only seen twice–I’m thinking I might need to walk a little further tomorrow and see if it’s at a different location), a box turtle, the killdeer, and then different song birds (I’ve seen the scissor-tail flycatcher, red-wing blackbirds, sparrows, grackles, swallows, and the occasional mockingbird).

What will be interesting is as the seasons change and we start to get migratory birds coming through–I really want to be able to get a good picture of a white pelican (they don’t stay that long), the cormorants, loons, and gulls/terns stay a little longer if not all winter. Plus as the leaves fall from the trees sometimes you can get a good picture of a hawk or two.