It was another very hot morning for our trip to check on the nests at Ding. The 3 Green Heron chicks appeared to have left the nest, or at least it was empty this morning. They mature and leave the nest fairly fast. They fly at 21 to 23 days and fledge the nest at around 30 days.

We saw the four Yellow-Crowned Night Heron chicks and they are still rocking their punk look. They mature a little slower, it seems.

I don’t know if it is an optical illusion, but one of the chicks seems a lot bigger than the others.

There are so many captions that would work for the photo below! I don’t even know where to start!

We were told that the Tri-Colored Heron nest below has 3 eggs in it. My husband was able to see two eggs when the parent stood up briefly and turned around. I couldn’t see into the nest from my vantage point. We hope to see some chicks next time we are there!

The Osprey chick (orange eyes on the right) was still in the nest today.

On our walk down Indigo Trail back to our car, we saw a big spider overhead that resembled a brown recluse, a Pileated Woodpecker that looked a lot like Woody Woodpecker, and a Fiddler Crab.

I love the little red wave on his head that is so much like Woody Woodpecker.

We were treated to a flock of Roseate Spoonbills along Wildlife Drive at Ding, again.

As we got out of the Jeep, one of the Spoonbills took flight right over our heads. I managed to catch one photo of it.

Between the pesky no-see-ums and standing beside this group of photographers with their huge lens, we didn’t stay very long in this spot! Talk about lens envy!

Then, off to the Bailey Tract to see if we might see any Black-Necked Stilts. When we walked up to the first pond area at the tract, there were two of the Stilts at the edge. I only had time to grab a couple of pics before they flew away and before I even had time to set up my tripod.

You can certainly see where they get the “stilt” part of their name!

There was one Roseate Spoonbill near the edge of the water.

The Snowy Egret below decided that it was offended by the Little Blue Heron, so they had a bit of a kerfuffle. Most of it happened where tall weeds were between my camera and the birds, so I missed the best shots.