Here are a few birds I caught on camera for this #featheredfriday by @melinda010100
The female red-winged blackbirds are staking out spots for nests.
They tend to put them down inside the thick reeds next to the lake. I've never actually seen one of their nests because they are so embedded in the reeds.
The male red-winged blackbirds are watching from a distance and defending their territory from the jogging humans and their dogs. The village has put up signs warning people about nesting red-winged blackbirds lol. Watch out for dive-bombing birds.
I noticed a somewhat rare sight on the lake. Three red breasted mergansers were fishing.
Sadly these guys have a force field around them that pushes them to the middle of the lake when they are on the edge and a photographer approaches for closer shots.
I get much better luck photographing them on the Chicago River downtown.
They are constantly fighting over fish all day on the river to care about the humans walking by on the riverwalk.
Meanwhile back on the lake I managed to get an action shot of these mallards taking off. My camera setting was set to take landscapes to I didn't have it on a high shutter speed for motion and it ended up kind of blurry.
This robin let me get right next to him.
Sadly the shot where his red breast was in the sun was composed such that the stupid branch caught the camera's focus rather than the bird.
This one focused a bit better but by then he was sharpening his beak.
Meanwhile on the ground these robins were playing some kind of football game. Maybe they are carrying out a blitz formation as they look for worms lol.
And now we end with a common house sparrow posing on the newly blooming tree. Soon all the leaves will unfold and obscure the birds even more from my camera lens.
Happy #featheredfriday :-)