Some photos of a different type for today, Sunday, the day of rest. These come from the pond adjacent to the soccer fields in Whitefish. The soccer fields, baseball diamonds, a housing development, a condo development, North Valley Hospital (brand spankin’ new!) and multiple medical and dental specialists offices now exist in an area that used to be marshy, wetlands. They believe they have taken care of drainage issues… The pond and some surrounding wetland acreage is home to birds, ducks and whatever other critters like Montana and marshy wetlands. It is a pleasantly noisy (bird, frog, etc.) and pretty pond. Below is what Karl and I saw on Friday when we walked here between appointments I had in Whitefish.

***note added…I need help identifying the bird. I thought it was a type of warbler, but now in my house (YEA!!!) and I did find my bird book but on flipping through did not find this bird. I’m in the throes of getting settled so will take more time later…unless someone can identify for me. The photos are 2 different birds – one has more read red on the top of its head. They were about the size of a robin. And the bird of prey – I’m not positive whether that is a hawk or a golden eagle. My impression when I decided to try and get a photo was that it was an eagle because of it’s size and manner of flight. Help, please!

***5/15/2008 addition Mental Pause Mama and my friend Kris identified the bird as a Yellow Headed Blackbird. Additionally, Kris and my neighbor Mikee are the deciding votes for Osprey as the ID for the bird of prey…a difficult id as I did not get accurate color in the photo. An interesting note is that Kris reports that the local newspaper ran a color photo of a Yellow Headed Blackbird that also had a red and orange “tinge”…anomaly of light or real color ????