Jordan Lake State Park

Category

By new Life List bird for doc ellen – Long-tailed Duck, 3 photos
I wasn’t at all sure what kind of duck came in for a landing at Jordan Lake.
Got home and started investigating.
WooWee. I had photographed a female long-tailed duck.
It is rarely seen at Jordan Lake – it is a migratory bird that stays mostly on our coastline in the winter.
I am sorry the pictures are not the best: I hope to see the bird again and get a better shot to share.
BTW a great identification source is the bird app “Merlin” at the Cornell Ornithology site.   http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org

By JL Eagle Nest Report: First Nest 3 photos 12/11/2017
All the parent eagles are busy repairing nests and getting ready for a new season of eaglets.
 
First Nest
 
This is Petruchio eyeing the repair work on the nest.
 
He soon left to get another branch or a talon full of soft material for the nest cup.
 
 
This is Momma Kate headed across the cove.
Kate is usually one of the very first to begin laying eggs – usually between December 24 and January 1.

 

 

By Red-tailed Hawk and Crabby Crow
The trees across the lake erupted in noise and birds.
A flock of crows exploded from the trees.
In the middle of the crow crowd was a red-tailed hawk.
As you can see, the crow was quite direct in expressing his feelings.
The rest of the crow flock followed along, screaming encouragement to their cousin.
I never saw any feathers fly and the whole assemblage disappeared over the top of the trees.

By doc ellen is NOT upside down …
doc ellen is NOT upside down
neither is the great blue heron way up the tree …
and the tree, well …
my friend and I were sitting under that tree
when the great blue heron flew in, landing directly above us
the bird proceeded to watch us down below as we looked up at him
I got to thinking that if the bird flew out I could get a neat slo mo video…