The parent of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was standing alone on the railing in front of the boardwalk entrance. I quickly walked toward the Landing to see the barrier. There I saw the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron standing alone. I wondered where the other young birds had gone this morning.
A large Nutria was on the lawn, eating grass as usual. It was different from other Nutrias. I have been seeing it eat grass every morning near the Landing. It seems to prefer to be near the Chinese Domestic Geese, though they have not accepted it into their family. I've seen it shooed away by the father goose a couple times, and once by the younger one.
The cones of the Sago Palms had recently turned from a brownish/blackish to a beautiful beige color.
The two dead stalks of the Sotol had been removed. They and the giant stalk of the Century Plant were companions. The flowers of the Century Plant showed that these are the last days of its life. There were fewer bees on the top of the stalk. With a dried sound, a curled up browned flower dropped onto the concrete. There were some dark brown withered flowers with curled, dried pistils that were hanging down from the branches and getting tangled together.
I heard the call of Thrusher and knew at once that the young Red-Shouldered Hawk was flying toward the wetlands, and that the Thrusher was after it. I turned around to return to the boardwalk. At the entrance, the parent of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was hunting on the floating dead tree trunk, but there was no sight of the young birds.
I saw three Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks fly over my head toward the river, and three more followed behind. I had seen them yesterday. This summer, a single Black-Bellied Whistling Duck flew down into the wetlands on July 4th, which was one month earlier than last summer. They seemed to be settling around the river, and they have not been visiting the wetlands as often as they did last summer. I wrote about my first encounter with the birds on August 4, 2009:
"This morning when I arrived at the boardwalk entrance I saw some birds flying to the feeding place. I was excited. I realized that they were nine Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks. They flew down onto the small algae island, stood side by side, and started drinking the water. They were well-mannered and kept to themselves. One bird flew to the shallow place, then other birds followed and surrounded it. They all started picking for food in the water but did not seem hungry. One Black-Bellied Whistling Duck ducked its head and neck under the water and splashed its back and feathers, as if it was taking a bath. The other birds started doing the same thing, as if they were cleaning themselves after returning from a long journey. It was my first time to witness this kind of action. One bird suddenly flew up and circled the boardwalk and wooded areas behind it. The other eight birds chirped like a whistle while their heads followed its flight. Eventually it came back down and landed beside the others, who all stopped whistling."
When I was walking toward the boardwalk exit, I saw a Superb Green Cicada on the ground in the middle of the walkway. I thought that a bird had picked it up and accidently dropped it on the way to the nest. Its rear end was missing, but its large ebony eyes and transparent wings made it look as if it would be able to fly away from my hand. I did not want anyone to step on it, so I dropped it onto a nearby Yellow-Pond-Lily pad.
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