A Quick Visit to Sheldon Lake

.
On Saturday Dee and I had to go to northeast Houston and so we decided to extend our drive a little and pop in to Sheldon Lake.

By the time we arrived at the Environmental Center, in late morning, it was already very hot and there was very little songbird activity: a couple of Northern Cardinals and Mockingbirds and a Red-winged Blackbird.

By contrast, dragonflies were everywhere.


Four types of Herons were fishing in the ponds: Green, Tricolored, Yellow-crowned Night and Black-crowned Night.

The rookery that spreads over two of the Center's ponds had several nests but was certainly much smaller than last year.


An adult Little Blue Heron was watching over a juvenile which was exploring nearby trees.


An adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron was guarding a nest that held three youngsters that were panting constantly in the heat.






Other nests were busy, too, but we weren't sure which species they held.






Some of the babies were clearly impatient for their parents to return with food.


After leaving the Center, we stopped off at a fishing pier along Fauna / Pineland Road. The trees opposite the pier held another rookery, this time of Great Egrets, Anhingas and Roseate Spoonbills.

Although the rookery was too far away for good viewing, we had excellent looks at adult birds flying to and from their nests.

Anhinga

Roseate Spoonbill

.