Dennis

Activity 1: Two swallows that bugged me in ID-ing are the barn swallow and the chimney swift. The swift is just a cigar shaped bird with wings and the swallow has the forked tail. Activity 2: Blue, black and white. Blue Jay, Tree Swallow and Tufted Titmouse. Slightly different shades of blue and patterned differently. Activity 3: I went for a short walk today and saw barn swallows at a lake. They were basically snagging insects out of the air, apparently up to 100 ft. I also saw a Northern Cardinal. He tends to hang out in lower trees and bushes and forages on seeds near the ground. Finally, Black Crested Night Heron was sitting next to fisherman at the lake and looking to steal their fish! Activity 4: Think my favorite local bird so far has been the Barred Owl. He is a large bird, bigger than a crow and obviously owl shaped. He is a brown and white bird with vertical stripes and horizontal lines on front and neck, respectively. His wings are checkered like and face has circular brown lines over white. His sound is notable 8-9 notes and he is a nocturnal animal staying often in trees in mature forests, nesting in tree cavities.