Hey, I won a photo contest!
http://www.laurensconservation.com/index_files/Page364.htm
Yeah… really…. over on the right…. scroll down….
Update: They changed the web site for this year’s contest, but I was able to obtain a copy of the web site as a PDF with the “2014 winners” page. You can find it here. See page 4.
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:
It’s the time of year to be seeing things like this:
…although I suspect these geese were just flying around, and have no intention of leaving the area for the winter. We have a lot of year-round resident geese.
I found a rock that had fallen off the wall, and was about to put it back on top, when
I decided to put the rock somewhere else and let this guy be. There are actually very few venomous snakes in South Carolina, especially the upstate, but I had no reason to give this little critter any trouble.
It started out with a foggy morning, which didn’t stop anyone from being out & about:
This Great Blue Heron, flying IFR in the fog, looked to have some ragged trailing edges:
One of the neat little places off the lake:
Then I saw this Green Heron on a chunk of tree over the water. He was all over it watching the water underneath, and didn’t seem to pay me much attention as I hung around maybe 10-15 meters away. I was sure she’d be nabbing something out of the water…
…which would have made a neat action shot, but after a half an hour, I gave up on it. Such is wildlife photography.
The morning started with a spectacular show by the rising sun…
…which the lake denizens took in:
The rest of these I’m going to call “art”. That sounds better than “what happens when you try to take action shots of a Great Blue Heron with really poor lighting”.
I got out on the lake early in the morning. It was a pretty nice morning, but a light southerly wind swept up enough moisture from the lake to sock in the areas north of the spillway. In spots, visibility was on the order of 100m.
When I got back, I heard a Great Blue Heron squawking and this other sharp call I’ve heard from time to time, but didn’t really know what it was. Then this little Green Heron landed right on the dock, practically right next to me, and hung around for some pictures.
What’s that expression about how the Heron flies?
No, that’s not right … it’s “How the Osprey flies…”
Crow! That’s it! It’s “How the Crow flies”!
In aerodynamics, drag is directly related to “frontal area”, or how much surface area is presented to the oncoming air. Birds don’t have a lot of frontal area in their flight configuration:
The Osprey are nesting on top of the intake structure. Best of luck to ’em!
I’m pretty sure this is a Bonaparte’s Gull, found hangin’ out near the dam, and probably on her way to breeding grounds, as they’re considered transients in this area:
(as usual, click on a picture to get to a higher-resolution version)
I know, what took me so long? Finally, here’s the first Creature Feature of 2014.
The first thing you notice is all the pollen and tree seeds on the water:
Cormorants and Geese were on patrol in the early morning cool:
And the Herons were in on the action too, commin’ right at ya (almost):
And ducks were fueling up for the day:
And, in a more pedestrian moment, my visiting Sister spotted this little guy on the side of the road, unfortunately expired. Adult human fingers included for scale. Anyone know what sort of snake this might have been? The blue color is distinctive, but might have changed since he died.
I was in a store this morning gathering supplies when I remembered that I need to get some vegetable seeds to plant. It’s been too busy a year to do much, but I still wanted to grow something. So I grabbed some seeds.
Later, as I was getting ready to plant them, I realized, drat, I should have also looked for some marigold seeds. Growing marigolds in with the vegetables noticeably reduces the number of hornworms we have to pick off the tomato plants. Oh well.
But as I started to clear away last year’s marigold plants, I realized that I didn’t need to buy seeds at all.
There were plenty of seeds left on the old plants. Who knew? 🙂
The recent rains evidently created a lot of runoff, which is heading into the lake. You can see the silt moving down into the lake from the South Rabon Creek, and getting stirred around by the aeration system near the dam.
