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:

Yup, raining proverbial cats and dogs, and Goldfinches.

Soggy light makes for slow shutter speeds.

The good news is that we’re getting the rain we need to relieve and stay out of drought, and everything is suddenly very green.

The weather finally decided to warm up, and it was a super day to go paddle around the lake. The water level is up, so I was able to poke around in the woods and marshy areas up at the northeast end of the lake, but there was wildlife action all up and down the lake. Spring is here, no question about it. As usual, high-res images are available by clicking on the picture below.

One sure sign of spring: lots of pollen:

A local pair of Osprey use the top of the water intake structure as a nesting platform. They’re back again this year, and I was present for the changing of the guard. You can see one of ’em down low on the nest as the other one lands. Another sure sign of Spring.

Turtles were out sunning all over the lake. I don’t think I’ve ever see this many in one place:

Cormorants were all over the place too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many in one place:

I’ve talked before about how difficult it is to get a good picture of a Kingfisher. I caught this one with a beak-full. Dinner time!

A mystery bird. The shape makes me think of a Heron of some sort, maybe an American Bittern, but the markings don’t seem to be prominent enough. If this was a Bittern, they were probably migrating through.

This is a new one on me: a Prothonotary Warbler. All About Birds says this bird is found in southeastern wooded swamps, which is exactly where I saw this one:

Beavers have been at work, explaining all the hidden ponds up at the northeast end of the lake:

As I was leaving the northeast end of the lake, I found about a half-dozen geese between me and the main lake. I managed to talk my way out of there and avoid capture. 🙂

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.