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!

I know, what took me so long to get the first Creature Feature of 2019 posted? I’ve been busy, and the screwy weather hasn’t helped. Anyway, on with the show…
With the light being what it was, all I can say about this guy is “Bird”:

On a nice warm day like this, Turtles were out all over the place:

Plus some other creatures:

Yes, Dragonflies are coming out now. Give ’em another month and they’ll be everywhere:

The Ducks are, of course, here year-round (a bit surprising I didn’t see a female in this group):

The Osprey were out and about too:

They always have a nest on top of the water-system intake structure. I wasn’t sure, but upon a close look there is a head in there amongst the branches, towards the left side.

The calling made it clear, though, that someone was home. As luck would have at, after I came ashore I was sitting on the dock taking in the view and the breeze when I spotted an Osprey overhead. I watched as he almost stopped in mid-air, hovered a bit, then tucked into a dive right straight down into the water. I didn’t see if he came up with anything, but it was neat to watch. Unfortunately, I was sitting on the dock and my camera was in the boat over by the ramp. Oh well.
One inlet I went up turned out to be where the meeting must have been being held. A whole bunch of Double-crested Cormorants and Herons decided to head the other way (I hope the meeting was just breaking up, not that I broke it up):

Of course, we have the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

As usual, click on the pictures for a full-res version.

Been a while since I had time for the camera, so here’s some catch-up.
The seasons have been changing while I was busy, but there’s still a lot going on out there, or even right here. This Red Fox visited my back yard the other day:

This morning started out foggy. And then it got a bit thicker (I was navigating by ear at one point):

I think these conditions meet most of the criteria to be called absolutely atrocious for photography, but I did manage to get a picture of our Bald Eagle flying in the fog (apparently flying VFR, but this is class G airspace):

The Spiders have been eating up other insects all summer, and fall is their time (looks like this area is decorated for Halloween, but I’m sure the Spiders don’t care about that):


This Killdeer was just across the water from the Spider enclave, and was being very vocal:

A few Turtles were out taking in some late-season sun:

Speaking about late-season, some fall flowers are out now:

Heading back down the lake, I spotted someone in the water:

Oh! Otters (don’t miss the two under the bank to the left)!

Obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

It seemed like things were pretty quiet around the lake this morning. We’re coming up on deep summer, the breeding season is winding down, and there’s plenty of food around. A good time to just sit back and relax a bit.

Humans, however, never seem to let up. I suppose if you mow hay on a hillside enough, a roll is bound to get away.

As I was working my way up the lake, I spotted a bird rather high up. From the size, I just assumed he was a Great Blue Heron, and tried to get a picture. A bird high up in the sky is a difficult photo target, because they’re small, and the bright sky can obscure any detail of the bird. Anyway, once I got a look at the picture, I wasn’t so sure about my identification.

A while later, as I was thinking I wasn’t going to see anything special today, I saw a large bird on the side of the lake, apparently well into brunch.

Ah, that’s what I saw up high, and yes, that was no Heron.

Yeah, a Bald Eagle, right here in Laurens County.

One of my familiars stops by the back yard (where the food is, of course):

The Ospreys were very active, cavorting in the air and working on their nest on top of the intake structure:

This is kind of interesting because it shows how their tip flight feathers splay and curve up to act as [what human aircraft designers call] winglets:

Of course, Osprey were using winglets long before humans produced the first inkling of aerodynamic lift.

Got a good look at this Heron from across a little inlet, who also got a good look at me, naturally:

A bit later, paddling out of the inlet, I reached for my camera to get a few more pictures of the Ospreys overhead, when I heard a floof floof floof right behind my starboard side. The heron passed within a paddle’s-length of me.

Ducks were hangin’ out:

and it was a good day for the Turtles to be out getting some sun:

Whenever I’ve become very familiar seeing something from one angle, like the spillway from the lake side:

I always find it interesting when I suddenly get a look at it from the other side. I was wandering around the Lake Rabon park below the dam when I suddenly realized “OH… This is where the spillway spills out!”:

It didn’t look like it had been used in a long time. If there were leaves on the trees, you could easily miss it entirely.

I know, where have I been? I’ve had a lot going on, a lot of which could be the subject of a Caregiving Thoughts post. But, finally, I have some creature material (as usual, click on a picture to get to a higher-resolution version).

The first creature featured is a Beaver, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the camera pointed before he splashed the water and disappeared.

The Osprey were much more visible at their nest on top of the water system’s intake structure. I’m guessing these two are the parents, and they seemed quite intent on what was in the nest.

A third Osprey was hanging out on the other end of the structure, keeping an eye on me. Perhaps he’s a family member helping out?

Now, ordinarily, I wouldn’t think much of encountering a spider web, but this one was on some old tree branches sticking out of the water a good 6 or 7 meters from the nearest shore. Can spiders swim? Or maybe she just ballooned out there and set up shop. Given the insects caught in the web, I’d say, so far, so good.


Of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture. I got a lot of pixels on this one….

…just before he decided to take off and go to warp.

In another encounter, while out cycling, I crossed paths with a little Mockingbird, probably not much older than a fledgling. She was small and more stubby-looking than the normally slender adults, but the wing markings left no question that this was a Mockingbird.
In an encounter of a different kind, while we don’t think of clouds as creatures, the way the move, shift, grow, and change they can seem alive. Taken from high above Laurens County: