Spring is defintely happening here! For those of you in more northern latitudes, if you haven’t seen those first Robins of spring, rest assured they’re on the way. I don’t have any tracking, but I suspect they’ll be more reliable than some of our package delivery services lately.

It was a really good day today to get out on the lake, and I couldn’t let it slide by. The camera was going full speed within 10 minutes of launching, but I’m going to back up just a bit to a couple of shots right in my own back yard, a relatively rare sighting:


I’ve seen Pileated Woodpeckers on occasion, but this was the first time I’ve gotten one on camera.

Out on the lake, the Cormorants were having a bit of a dust-up (can you have a dust-up on the water?):

Geting one of these airborne off the water takes some work. Ready…..

Launch!

And a few more hops to get fully weight-on-wings:

There’s a new nesting platform for the Osprey near the lake dam, being checked out:

and these guys were cavorting in the air nearby:

Turtles! Everywhere there was something sticking out of the water, there were turtles!

Follow the leader…

A few Crows gathered before crossing the lake:

Of course, the Geese are still here, but seem to be more dispersed, probably out nesting. This was was doing a little “airframe maintenance”:

I’m please to report that the Bald Eagles are still around too. I saw this one high above the lake:

And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

As usual, you can click on the pictures to get to a full-resolution version. Enjoy!