Two Visits and Another FOF

My visit –or should I say visits– to the park this Saturday were memorable for a number of reasons. First when I arrived in the morning around 10:45am, I ran into another bird watcher/naturalist who has become a good friend of mine simply through bumping into each other at the park. He is much more experienced than I am and so I figured I would walk with him a bit as two pairs of eyes are always better than one. He quickly pointed out a few birds I may have missed; an Eastern Phoebe, Swainson's Thrush and then some Warblers. As we watched the Warblers from afar I identified one of them as a Magnolia, which was a great sighting for the day. We then crept closer and found some Palm Warblers who actually held still for a few photos from me. They are easily the most photogenic of all the Warblers, sometimes seeming to even pose for you. We then hiked to the culdesac on 73rd Ave where he had parked and were about to part ways when another bird watcher/naturalist friend of mine showed up. So then we hiked the remainder of the way around the park, covering twice the amount of ground in about half the time I had just gone - LOL! While I certainly enjoy the company of like minded nature lovers –and boy do I ever learn a lot from them– I often don't pause or lollygag around much when I'm with another person. And that is when I tend to get my best photographs when I'm by myself. So after coming home for a quick lunch I actually headed back to the park for a lazy afternoon of bird watching on my own. After sitting in the woods for a while and again always just missing shots of too quick Warblers, I decided to go over to the drainage pond or "Duck Pond" on the southwest corner of the park. I knew there were a few Wood Ducks around and so I thought maybe I could sneak up on one. But while walking on the wood chip trail that borders this pond I noticed a smaller sized duck with a very large bill. It was a Northern Shoveler! Only just that morning I had got into a discussion with my friend about Shovelers and we both said that neither of us had seen one at the park in Fall. And just like that, here they were, at least one male and one female swimming alongside the Mallards. I quickly took a few photos while I was close enough but each duck was kind of in the shade of the trees. They quickly scared off and took flight much like Wood Ducks do. I decided to hike around to the other side of the pond. Here there is no trail so I went through the woods and inched my way up to the edge of the water, concealing myself behind the tall grass. I had my stool with me and after sitting for a while the group of ducks would swim towards me. There again among the Mallards was not just one pair but two pairs of Shovelers! This was a much better view, with the light from behind me this time though a bit further away. I snapped many many pics hoping to get at least one decent one with both the male and female together. I went back through my blog postings later in the day to verify and yes indeed these were the first Northern Shovelers I've ever seen at the park in fall! It makes one wonder if they might even be the very same birds that I saw in April of this year. Later a few Wood Ducks eventually became comfortable with me too and moved in a little closer. The light was fantastic by this time in late afternoon and the colors of the male shown spectacularly. This one did a big old stretch and I took a photo right then which was my favorite of the day.