And this is the #lake you see when looking outside (admittedly from another window). It looks much better in the morning when the #sun is behind you, but seeing #tufted #ducks #diving and the #swans #cruising by is always a #pleasure.

#Tufted #titmouse in the back yard perched in a Jamaican caper tree 🤩
#BirdsOfMastodon

Dear Friends of #Urban Ducks,
This morning, lots of #tufted ducks (pic enclosed) on #Tooting Common. A parakeet on the island pond. Cormorants turning over #oak leaves in the pond. Maybe looking for food underneath, or perhaps thinking of becoming vegans? Very warm and #pleasant. Even saw a #bumblebee.

botany.one/2023/12/theyre-planting-trees-everywhere-and-other-stories/

Arrrgh for some reason half the photos I took at the restoration site today, have vanished off the phone. This project is an experimental stream recharge pond facilitated by Sanctuary Forest, in one of the tributaries to the upper Mattole River in northern CA. The pond is adjacent to the creek, and the goal is for the pond to slowly discharge water into the creek during low flows in summer. Its a tricky balance to create a pond that leaks slowly. This pond was not holding water well, losing water too fast, so bentonite was added for a better seal. However if a pond is sealed too well, it won't discharge.
We seeded the site with two native CA grass species, CA #Brome and #Deschampsia (#tufted hair grass). Both species are suited to woodland sites. We also mulched the area with rice straw. Those fotos vanished from my phone. Im bummed that the Beaver Dam Analog, #BDA photos, in the creek adjacent to the pond vanished. BDA's are human made instream dams that mimic a beaver dam. They are functioning well, after repairing them in the summer using huckleberry for branch packing.
#WatershedRestoration
#CaNativeBunchGrass
#deschampsia #CaBrome
#BeaverDamAnalog
#BDA
#bioengineering
#branchpacking

Tufted Titmouse
The only editing I've done to these photos is cropping. This is a two frame sequence of a titmouse getting away with a sunflower seed.

#photography #photo #photographer #birds #tufted titmouse