Brown Thrasher and More

Today's featured bird is the Brown Thrasher.  A pair of these were working the interface between bushes and roadside.  They shake their heads back and forth rapidly while their bills cast aside the leafy debris, uncovering insects that may be hiding there.  Normally very wary birds, I followed the pair up the road for a good 15 minutes today, using my car as a blind and parking on the opposite side of the road.

I love their coloration!

In a nearby location my wife had spotted a nesting Killdeer.  Unfortunately, park maintenance appears to have done some work in the area, and the Killdeer abandoned her nest and her unhatched eggs.

We also find Killdeer nests in graveled parking lots where the eggs are extremely difficult to distinguish from their surroundings.  For scale, note that most of the dried vegetation around the nest is pine needles.

A pair of Snowy Egrets were working a ditch.  Note the difference in the coloration of the lores (the area between the eyes and beaks) of these two birds.

The yellow is normal.  So far, I have no explanation of the reddish one.  (Note later:  there are indications that the reddish lores are feature of breeding plumage, though major reference books omit this detail.)

Finally for today we have some more turtles sunning. What struck me about these guys is the way they've completely covered the log, with feet and tails hanging over the edge.