A Good Morning at Theler

You know it’s going to be a good walk when you’re greeted at the beginning by an oft-heard, but seldom-seen Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

at the visitor’s center that is so accommodating it not only announces its presence but lands low enough to the ground that you are looking down at it, not up, though it would’ve been unreasonably demanding to ask it to move to a sunnier location.

Not too much further down the trail a Spotted Towhee

 Spotted Towhee

was cooperative enough to actually fly up to a tree instead of hopping into the brush so that I could get a low-angle shot for a change.

This Great Blue Heron startled me when it flew past and landed in the top of a tree

Great Blue Heron in tree top

rather landing in its customary nearby wetlands.

My walk ended on a high note, literally, when this Marsh Wren

 Marsh Wren

clearly claimed the reeds next to the boardwalk that leads out to the Sound. I got some of the best shots I’ve ever gotten of a Marsh Wren here last Spring, but this is the first time I’ve spotted, or heard him, this year.