The seasons are starting to change, and it seemed these Geese were practicing their formation for migration. Hint: remember guys, the idea is to get on top of the the wingtip vortex of the bird ahead of you. Really, a lot of these Geese hang around all year, but they probably like to fly anyway:

When I got up to the end of the lake, there was a large flock of Geese there, just hangin’ out. Then a couple of them took off and headed down the lake, maybe to do a little recon, then came back. This one made a nice landing on the water:

I watched them from a comfortable distance for a while, then they decided to move off down the lake. They checked me out while I was watching the parade:

They left the Killdeer, and a bunch of feathers, behind:

When I got back to my launch/recovery point, there was a Heron hanging around, who checked me out as I approached:

I figured she would just take off as I approached the dock, but instead she just waded off, giving me a chance to get a whole lot of pixels on her (click on the picture to check out the full-res version if you want to count the feathers):

And, no, I really don’t know if that bird was a he or she, but I had to pick some sort of pronoun. Some time I’ll write about the limitations of the English Language, or, as some call it, the Anguish Languish.

I was quietly going up one of the little feeder creeks, one of those that you wouldn’t even know are there, much less get into, with a power boat, shooting video (stay tuned for my next “favorite places” video). Ahead on the left I saw something, or somethings, moving around in the water, and my first thought was beavers, since they’re active in that area, as well as all around the lake.

Usually, when I see a beaver, they’re crossing the water, and when they notice me they slap the water and disappear, as in this earlier video of mine:

These creatures didn’t do that. While they kept their distance and moved off, they seemed to actually be as curious about me as I am about them.

Sure looked like Otters to me.

These guys (Cliff Swallows, I think) will land just about anywhere. They have a lot of nests under the Wilsontown Bridge.

Gear down, landing in the fog:

Everyone loves a parade … or, stuck in traffic:

The usual Great Blue Heron in flight:

Coming in from the lake, I decided to try going a little “macro” in the back yard. I really have no idea what these plants are, but maybe they look neat.

And, to finish off the day, almost a double rainbow (I know rainbows aren’t “creatures”, but, what the heck…). You can just about make out the track of a second rainbow above the obvious one.

It’s been real busy out there on the lake lately, so there’s a lot to report. As usual, you can click on the pictures below to get to the full-res versions.

First up, the Osprey are having some breeding success: little one in the nest 🙂 (not a real good picture, but something worth reporting).

A Snowy Egret shakin’ out:

One of our Turkey Vultures on patrol, looking for something to clean up:

This Hawk was being quite vocal, so I just had to start shooting [pictures].

OOO! A Dragon! …. fly, who was content to pose for me for a while. I’ll update this if I can get a positive id on exactly what type of Dragonfly this is. Update: I got a response from Rudy Mancke (noted naturalist and the one celebrity I’d actually like to meet). The dragonfly is a Blue Dasher, a common dragonfly throughout the US.


The recent rains have given us an extra foot or so of water in the lake, making it possible for me to get into more nooks, crannies, and up the creeks (but I still had my paddle). Here’s a couple of places one usually can’t get to. You can’t see them in these pictures, but I could tell there were lots of creatures around these places.

Along the way I took some video, which will end up in the sequel to “Some Of My Favorite Places on Lake Rabon”. Stay tuned.

I haven’t had a lot of time to go out on the lake lately, but here’s a few creatures.
A red-wing blackbird:

Lot of plants are throwing seeds around. A lot of them landed on this bit of water in a little clearing:

While preparing to go fly at the Greenville Downtown Airport with my aluminum wings, I noticed a hawk and heard some commotion. I grabbed the camera out of the plane and snapped this shot of a crow who was quite upset with the hawk:

And the obligatory Great Blue Heron in-flight photo: