This is the first of what I hope to be a regular feature here: creatures seen, and photographed around Lake Rabon. As usual, click on the picture for the full-resolution version from Picasaweb.

I took advantage of a warm Friday afternoon off to do some much-overdue boating out on the lake. At first it seemed like spring has been thoroughly dampened by the cold weather we’ve had lately, but a little observation showed that things were still well under way. I saw two Osprey circling each other and calling, and this little Carolina Chickadee in the real estate market:

Also taking advantage of the warm weather were the turtles:

Cormorants executing a formation landing, sort of:

I wasn’t close enough to get real good pictures of the action, but this montage captures an Osprey collecting lunch:

And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron in-flight picture (here in cruise flight):

Today I attended a session on nature photography at the Lake Conestee Nature Park, a neat restored natural place on the Reedy River right in the Big City (in my out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere opinion) Greenville, SC Metro area. The session was put on by professional nature photographers Ben Keys and Clay Bolt. The session was both entertaining and useful. I’ve got some more things to try with my camera now.

A couple of the attendees are wildlife rehabilitaters. After all the photography, we were honored to be present while they released a barred owl that had been rescued after getting his head stuck in a chain-link fence. Click on the picture to get to some more pictures of the event.

I wasn’t sure how good this picture really was since I had to fiddle with the exposure after the fact, but a friend said it was one of my best yet. So, captured last week, here it is (as usual, click on the picture for the expanded version):