One of my favorite birds… one that I think is indeed surrounded in something quite mystical… made a wonderful appearance today at Lake Hefner. The Merlin returned!!! 
I literally jumped out of my car and quickly set up my spotting scope on a muddy road when I caught that first unexpected glimpse of him sitting in the same tree, in the same spot as last year. I spent so much time last winter watching this small falcon, a somewhat rare visitor to my birding route around Lake Hefner, that I he grew quite comfortable with me setting up my tripod very close to his perch. What a great bird!
Last year, the Merlin arrived — or at least was first spotted — on August 29. This year his arrival is two weeks ahead of schedule. Here’s hoping he finds adequate prey and stays for another winter.
Today’s brief birding trip to Hefner brought another fun surprise: a Yellow-crowned Night Heron within 10 feet of my truck as I drove along the golf course road. I’ve wanted to get better pictures of this interesting night heron and have been concerned that the summer would pass without a chance to photograph one. I wasn’t finding them anywhere at Hefner and the ones I found at Rose Lake in Yukon were perched too far away to photograph. The bird I discovered today was very patient and posed quite gracefully for me. And he was so close that I had to zoom back to photograph his whole body. Some of the pictures turned out nice and I’ll be posting them in the Photo Gallery later this week.
After a weekend of (much needed) rain, today’s 80-degree temperature made for an unusually mild August day for Oklahoma. I’ll take it!!!
Happy birding,
Pat
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