Four Legs and Two Legs

First the four legs.

It's spring -- and Dakota is losing his thermal undercoat of hair. Lon is covered with dog hair.

Just a bit of Dakota's hair. No wonder our house needs to be swept two or three times a day!

Now for two legs.

I noticed this tree of heron nests in January. At first I thought that vultures had chosen to settle in this tree near the one I photographed earlier this week.

But a closer examination made it clear that these were great blue herons, not vultures.

Note the long beak and tufts on the head -- it's a heron.

Since we go by here everyday on our way to the Y, I brought my better camera. Here's a heron on a nest.

It looks like this pair is adding a new nest to the tree.

Herons aren't the only birds looking for nest sites. A pair of bluebirds have been trying to come in our bedroom window, but just end up hanging onto the screen. I have four bluebird boxes available for them, but they seem to prefer other places.