Saturday Morning Outing

What a difference a day makes....in fact, a couple of hours.  After a night of rain showers, there was going to be a brief window of time before more clouds moved in this morning.  I headed out early just to see what was out.

The sun was out when I arrived and the Great Blue Heron was sunning on a favorite tree.  I talked with the park ranger for a while and we walked on back to the marsh area.





Several deer were out and blended so well into the background we didn't see them at first.  The wetland area looks so different without the green lush foliage of the spring and summer.









Lots of Mallards were flying in and beginning to congregate on the pond.  The males were busy chasing each other while the females were nonchalantly preening their feathers.






A group of Ring-billed Ducks were at the far side of the pond.  I had my 4/3 camera with me so set in on 4x optical zoom with a 300mm lens.  Not the best shot but it let me see what kind of ducks they were.

Late Autumn Day

It was another unusually warm day but for sure I am not complaining.  Cold air is suppose to arrive Sunday so it was nice to have a last opportunity to open up the house to air our.  The frogs and lizards were out enjoying the warm weather too.  I counted three Carolina Anole basking around the deck area this afternoon.

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A little Downy Woodpecker has been hitting the suet feeder hard along with the %(*&$# squirrels.  By this afternoon is looked a little perplexed as to why so little left.  Late this afternoon I fixed up a batch of home made suet which the birds seem to prefer.  Once the cold weather arrives next week all they birds should hitting it pretty hard.

I spent the day getting up leaves before  the rain comes in.  It seems like this year the leaves have stayed on the trees quite a bit longer than usual.  I guess because we have had so little cold weather they are hanging on longer.  The Japanese Maples in the yard look like pillars of fire against the brown of the other trees.  They too turned later than usual and still have most of their leaves.

A Beautiful Day

The last two weeks have been extremely busy with work on my room.  Painting is completed and the new floor is down.  My new mattress was delivered Friday and when arrived, I found I could not get on the bed without a step stool!  I spent the day scouting other mattress possibilities and fighting with Sears since they have given me every reason in the world on why the mattress should not be returned.  I was told to "give it 30 days" and see how I like it first.  They just don't seem to understand that I will not grow any taller and the mattress will not lose any depth in 30 days.

So frustrated by this afternoon I headed out just to get away.  The birds were very active taking advantage of the warm day and increased insect movement.  I hit one spot where the bird activity was so numerous then all of a sudden the robins alarmed and they all flew.  I saw the hawk fly on by so guess that is what spooked them.

There were lots of Kinglets, both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned, Eastern Bluebirds, Pine Warblers, Flickers, Woodpeckers and Sapsuckers.

Blue-headed Vireo

Hearing lots of chirps, chips and peeps when I arrived home this morning, I grabbed the camera and walked out in the yard.  What I expected to see was some Kinglets of one kind or another.  Once I looked through the camera I realized that this was not a Kinglet and was very surprised and delighted to see a Blue-headed Vireo.









It was a nice, unexpected treat in a time when all but the everyday song birds are usually the only birds around.

Early Morning Outing

I met a friend out early this morning to view the partial eclipse.  We were not the only folks out to watch.  Picture time was limited to first views as to not damage the camera sensors.  Pretty cool!  It was a fairly cool morning out and I could not believe some folks showed up in shorts and T-shirts.  With the wind blowing I know they were cold.







I decided to ride on down the road a bit even though it was just barely light.  I stopped and cut off the car when I saw some deer come up through the pasture and reach electric fence.  Panic behavior set in quickly as they paced and ran along side the fence looking for a way through.  I really felt sorry for them.







 About that time I sneezed and the doe went over and the young deer went through.  The young buck began crouching getting ready to make the jump.  He seemed hesitant but soon made the leap.







Lots of Palm Warblers have arrived and were flying in and out of a tree that was receiving first light.

A pair of hawks were hunting over the fields and one buzzed by so close and so quickly I really could not get the camera to focus well.

A Wonderful Day

You could not ask for a better almost end of October day.  Temps were around 75, very little wind and blue skies for most of the day.  My friend and I left my house around 0330 and arrived at Lake Mattamuskeet just before sunrise and a beautiful one it was.  As we were sitting up the cameras waiting and otter came swimming by.  Oh for it to have been light!  The sunrise was beautiful over the still water of the lake.

Birds came to life quickly.  Already thousands of Northern Pintails, American Wigeons, Lesser Scaup, Northern Shovelers, Coots, Canada Geese, Mallards and many more are filling the lake.  It is quite a sight to behold.  Later in the afternoon a formation of Tundra Swan came flying over.  We plan to go back in December when many more will have arrived.

Several deer were roaming in the marsh area unconcerned as they were surrounded by water.









Two adult eagles and their offspring were hanging around the back part of the lake.  I had to take this through the scope as they were out of my camera lens range.

The young eagle took great pleasure in buzzing the ducks on the lakes and they would take off in one large group.  The sound was  of so many taking off together was amazing.
















There were lots of cormorants around finding a snag to sun on and dry their feathers.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

I am killing some time this morning waiting for the man from the natural gas company to come and set the meter.  Trying to get the service company to coordinate with the town inspector to do an inspection has been an almost impossible task.

As I was fixing some breakfast, I noticed a bright splash of orange in the fountain.  A Golden-crowned Kinglet was splashing away and excited enough to display some orange in the generally gold and flat head feathers.  I would have loved some better light.  Since there is no heat in the house, I just raised the window to try for a better shot.