Bona Dea Update

Bona Dea was cloudy early on and turned mostly sunny late. It had rained .10 in in past 24 hours. The water had receded enough to navigate around. The spillway was full as was Waldon Pond and Prairie Creek. This Yellow Bellied Watersnake was content to stay on the edge of the spillway looking at all the fish swimming by. It did not move for quite a while until I made in move and then it just came back to the same spot. Also across the way on Waldon Pond in the Willow trees on swinging bridge trail, this Green Heron perched itself on a limb. There was a pair of them flying around. The mate to this one soon flew up there with it. They make a lot of noise talking to each other. Also several Crested Flycatchers were flying around the island in Waldon Pond and one flew in a tree right above me and was really singing out. I suppose the high and muddy water caused the fish to really be hungry today. They ate the hard feed pellets pretty good. There were not any basking turtles out anywhere and the troublesome Red Eared Slider turtle did was not present to steal the fish food. The pumping station was working overtime since yesterday trying to keep up with the large amount of water draining into the park. All the areas by the old swinging bridge was still flooded. Northern Cardinals were singing away and the Crows were still flying around and making noise. Also some variety of gray and white Warbler/Vireo birds flew in trees above me and did not stop moving gleaning every leaf and limb around and did not make a sound. They must have been migrating through the area. At the pumping station, I took these 2 photos of a Mimosa Thorn Bush. They have big thorns and is located right by the station next to Prairie Creek.