Huntley Meadows

I had the Bird Flu today so I cut work and went out to one of my favorite spots, Huntley Meadows. It is about 12 miles from my house and it took about that long for my car to warm up. It was in the 30's when I first got outside but eventually it got to around 55 degrees. 55 was perfect when I was walking outside in a light jacket. It was cool and crisp without a cloud in the sky.


Although it was Wednesday the parking lot at the visitors center was packed. There were several large groups of elementary school students that were there on a field trip. They have a nice classroom inside so they were in there studying about animals and the environment. I was pretty surprised though to see that many cars.

I walked out to the first small pond and took in the fall colors. Loved it.

Huntley Meadows

 

 

 

 

There were Mallards and Canadian Geese in the first pond so I went to the wetlands in the back to see what I might find. There was a small pool with some really bright green-headed Mallards so I stopped to take a few pictures.  Like usual, hard for me to pass up a good mallard picture.

Mallards

Something flew by on one of the pictures.

UFB- Unidentified Flying Bird

 

 

 

Then it screamed at me. I glanced over and it was a female Belted Kingfisher with a minnow in her mouth.

Female Belted Kingfisher

The Belted Kingfisher is the most common kingfisher, eats fish and spends most of the year alone.

That made sense because I did not see another one anywhere around. The Belted Kingfisher is a permanent resident to Northern VA. One more to add to the list.

I also saw a lot of female Red-winged blackbirds and some White-throated Sparrows.

Female Red-winged Blackbird

White-throated Sparrow