This was the first time I had seen a northern shoveler in the lake doing anything besides looking for food.

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

*****

We drove by Constitution Gardens on Sunday only to find the National Park Service is draining the artificial lake! There were still some ducks there along with a cormorant and a lot of seagulls and crows. My friend the heron was nowhere to be seen; I think he’s finally gone for good.

Apparently they’ve had problems in recent years with algae blooms that killed the bream in the lake as well as some ducklings, so I guess they’re trying to maintain it better to head off more problems this summer.

Sun orchid, posted earlier: