I had a pretty remarkable experience this morning.

[NYC_SKP]

2. I love the bird life, am particularly fond of Black Crowned Night Herons.

My primary home is in the San Joaquin Sacramento Delta area, a little place but the house is right on the levee and the birds are abundant.

The Black Crowned Night Heron is a smaller bird, smaller than the Blue Herons and the Egrets and other daily visitors.

I like that this species is solitary and unassuming, and a mating pair was present for a while, and I could almost set my watch to their morning and evening departures from a tree across the river.

My favorite thing is their coloring and an elegant slender feather feature not found on the other marine birds in these parts:



I'll be selling this place soon to a smaller place on the coast with different animal life. Pelicans and Gulls are common, I need to learn the different species. The best, however, are the marine mammals. Dolphins are here daily, on Thursday I went for a swim and was met by two seals, literally withing 20 feet of me (they are cute, like dogs).

And possibly the best, last week, also on Thursday, I was cruising the DU and checking the email and looked up from my computer to see a humpback whale surface. With binoculars, I found that at least three of them were out them.

Humans, we're so boring compared to our earthly neighbors.