Granny's gone and done it again

Spring is here! Was out walking around a small lake and the birds are busy gathering nesting material... beaks full if fluffy down from cottonwood trees, sticks, and dry grass. So much industry! I saw a huge white swan near the edge of the pond, which I've never seen before. There were also noisy pairs of Canada geese, sleek diving black cormorants, a coot, mallards, and other assorted ducks out on the water, too far away to tell what they were.

*none of these are my pictures :oops:
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The most exciting thing was watching three green herons (Butorides virescens) flapping around in the trees across the lake. Good thing I had my binoculars. I couldn't tell exactly what they were doing, but it could have been 2 males after the same female or maybe a pair whose child was refusing to leave the nest! They are normally such stealthy and well camouflaged birds that they are not often seen. Spring is making everyone restless!
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This site shows more of what I saw... mating birds defending a nest site... it IS SPRING after all! :bun
They call it breeding fights! :smack
http://stokesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/green-heron-breeding-fights.html

I'm going to keep going back to the lake and try to see the babies! :jumpy
@Akrnaf2
Beautiful! We have some of the spices here too!
 
I of course have no idea what this means
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Clear as mud! F1 in breeding terms is a hybrid mix of 2 purebred animals. Sexlinks are F1.
If you breed F1 to F1 you get F2 generation, which varies widely.
I think on the egg chart, person was breeding F1 back to purebred stock to get the resulting egg colors.
That last green one... I can get that color easy. It's called Paas dyes! :bun
 

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