Sunday, February 28, 2010

Nice to be back!

Murph and I visited the refuge today, almost 3 weeks since our last visit.


As Murph told me, that's too long!

Quite a bit of water, although mud is still showing on the edges of the large body of water.  That there is fish in that body was proven by a bald eagle who calmly flew low over the water, stuck his talons in and came up with a small fish!  The seagulls were congregated on the mud, eating busily whatever they eat.

Harriers everywhere as usual, no herons sighted and only one kestrel by the offices. Canadiens are settling in, looking like parents to be; and a nice group of Northern pintails in the shallows by the Canuks.  The pied bill grebes were out in numbers at the far end, and showing much less fear than before.


A seagull kept buzzing around me, so I took the opportunity to practice a few new settings on my camera to see how they worked!  Came out with a couple of cute pictures of the goofball (who's the goofball?).


Nice to be back again,  too long away!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Spring on the way!

A cold wind on the dikes today, but a sense of spring is on the way. Once again, harriers were everywhere!  Even on the ice eating on something caught out there!  A few eagles out on the ice and one flying overhead, but need a lot more to make next weekend's eagle spotting a real success.

Blackbirds were singing a lot in the morning, Canadian geese showing up in a lot of places, preparatory to mating, I believe.  A kestrel eating breakfast and a couple of blue herons way down the dike!