Life with Andrea

This morning, there is a Downy Woodpecker in the yard.  Bob refuses to believe they are really woodpeckers, because they have short beaks.  But I even heard him pounding on the butterfly bush, so he does know how to peck.  I didn't get a decent picture, but it was exciting all the same. 
And a house finch. 
And chickadees.
And Juncos. 
But that's all for this morning. 

Then, we kept going, and drove around - and the walk I wanted to take was CLOSED, so we had to drive instead.  But we did see lots of birds. 

I stopped to take a picture of a plant Bob was excited about (the teazle).  And, when I stopped, I looked down at the water, and there was this bird!  I think it's a green heron - it doesn't look like anything else, even though it's not as green as others I"ve seen.  But it was so very close!  And then when I spoke, it flew off. 

After driving a bit, we went to a different part of the refuge, and Bob got a good picture of his teazle.  It's a thistle, and when the seeds haven't fallen out, they'll sprout right inside the plant!  So you get one plant growing inside another plant.  Cool, huh?