I don’t know how many places are like this, but one thing about winter in the Carolina’s (USA) is you can start out at 26°F needing hats, gloves, and coats in the morning and end up out on the lake in the afternoon with just shorts and a T-shirt. That was the case this weekend, and I took advantage of it to get out there for the first time in months (as usual, click on the pictures to get to a higher-res version).

In the meantime, things have transitioned to a winter configuration.

These Gulls are winter residents:


I’m not sure what trick of the light or angles made this one look a bit like a stealth bomber:

We do know, of course, that sufficiently large flocks of birds do show up on air traffic control radar. Wonder how that will be affected with ADS-B?

The Kingfishers are around all year (have I mentioned how difficult it is to photograph these birds?):

If you’re reading this blog, you probably recognize this guy, taking advantage of some late-season nuts:

Probably the only thing trickier than flying through tree branches at speed is taking a picture of someone doing exactly that:

These Mallards are also year-rounders, flying around under a sky that amazing shade of blue that this planet is so noted for and photographs never do justice:

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