Peekaboo! Some Nature Shots

As we walked along the river last weekend I noticed this ailing little tree and its occupants. On the return I tried to sneak up on the little guy. He saw me and scooted up through the holey bole and popped out at top (pic #1 below) to survey the situation. I waited and sure enough he scurried back down to the lower opening and posed for me there.

A female downy woodpecker found the neighbood cuisine delicious.

The same week I caught these birds on a field trip with my fourth graders:



A great blue heron sits by the shore of a beaver ruin.



A warbler visits a feeder station.



A trio of black vultures turn their backs to us in the tippy top of the dead pines.

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An injured black vulture eats a thawed chick as he underges rehabilitation at the nature center aviary. My students, being fourth graders, are fascinated that the brilliant vulture has such disgusting adaptations. It defecates on itself, coating its legs with a white mixture of uric acid and feces that helps to cool the animal in warm weather and to kill bacteria it picks up from its rotting meals.