Saturday, March 26, 2016

A Few Common Birds

Not many unusual bird sightings this spring, and certainly no good photographs.  The cold has held on and migrants haven't returned as quickly as they usually do.  But that doesn't stop me getting out there to see what I can see.  A friends reports a pair of Bald Eagles at lake Eugenia which they've seen more than once, so I go back hoping I'll see them too, but no luck so far.

But the lake has filled suddenly and quickly, nearly to its full level.

I had to use the binoculars to spot the Tundra Swans on the far side of the lake, just little white spots.

Zooming in with the camera I could actually pick out individual Swans, but they'll probably leave on their way to the Arctic soon.

This pair of Mute Swans may hang around on the lake all summer though.

I often see flocks of Ring-billed Gulls in flooded fields at this time of year; these were a long way away.

Here's a closer picture.

I don't know what it's got a hold of, but I thought this was a neat picture.

And one of a Mallard pair on another small wetland.  Probably the most common ducks in this area.

But then we had another critter too, right outside the back window, a Groundhog, probably the one that raids our veggie garden.

It was obviously gathering dried grasses for its nest.  We really like to find a way of persuading them to move elsewhere!

Hope you're all having a Happy Easter!

Linking to:


14 comments:

  1. That is a groundhog... no doubt happy to see spring.

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  2. You did a good job of getting pictures of those birds, and I'm glad your ice storm passed so quickly. Groundhogs must live elsewhere, I've never seen one.

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  3. Beautiful wildlife photos. Love the bird shots?

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  4. Lovely photos and captures . The Bald Eagle always seem to show up here when I don't have my camera in hand lol but I have managed to get few decent shots of them soaring hover our house just need to get them when they land in the fields . Thanks for sharing , have a good weekend and a Happy Easter .

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  5. You captured a lot of water fowl that I never see. We do see Canada geese flying over and lots of ducks migrate through. Some years we have red winged blackbirds that fly through. It is a lot of racket. I am getting anxious for it to get a lot warmer.

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  6. IF anyone every devises a way to convince ground hogs to move on they will become rich.

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  7. You had a great outing with some great spring sightings.

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  8. Nice shots! Good luck with that groundhog!

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  9. Unusually you've captured some birds that I'm familiar with; Mute Swans and Mallards we have in abundance, even the odd Ring-Billed Gull turns up from time to time. Groundhogs we do not have, and to judge from the comments above you can keep 'em - and you probably will.

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  10. Hello, great shots of the swans, ducks, gulls and the groundhog. We have a family of groundhogs in our yard, they can not be persuaded to leave. We tried. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Sunday, enjoy your new week ahead!

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  11. a great group of critters, beautiful images!!! happy easter, happy spring!!!

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  12. Some nice images here, thank you.

    Enjoy the Easter Weekend.

    All the best Jan

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  13. Quite a few of those ground hogs around here too.
    Enjoyed seeing all the critters. : )

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