Jordan Lake State Park

Tag

By surprised…

Jordan Lake surprised me again today.
I had been counting bald eagles for the quarterly eagle count when a large bird of another sort flew past.
It was a white pelican. I see these occasionally at Mattamuskeet or at the ocean shore but not here at Jordan Lake.
What a wonderful sight on a crisp autumn morning.

pelican Jordan

By honest…

Honest, there is a great blue heron in the photo!
The high waters of the lake have flooded all of the shoreline.
This allows the heron to stalk his fish and other snacks far into the tree line.
The lanky body of the heron becomes almost invisible until a stray sun beam lights his eye.

gbh fishing flood

By turtle rescue and release
My friend and I realized this turtle was not moving through the water.  It was tangled in fishing line, hooks and sinkers.
The turtle couldn’t break free from the tangled mess.
Taking some discarded fishing line, a couple of hooks I found in the trash along the shore line and some sinkers we also found, my friend made a “fishing rig”.
Then he quite expertly hand cast the line past the turtle and hauled the line in with the turtle snagged in his rig.
After wading ashore my friend and I worked the fishing lines off and removed the hooks and weights.
We sat the turtle down at the edge of the water and waited.
The turtle poked his head out and up.  The right front foot reached out and then the left front foot.  Soon followed by the hind feet and tail.
Realizing he was free the turtle scooted into the waves and was gone.  We were glad to see him go!  See the video below the photo for the turtle  release.
turtle rescue

By eagle learning experience
There are 2 new eagle photo galleries at the Jordan Lake State Park Visitor Center,
280 State Park Road, Apex, NC 27523.
A great way to learn how to understand what you are seeing when out and about at the lake.
One of the photo series follows the bald eagle from the nest, to fledging and up to and beyond adulthood.
The second series shows a bald eagle catching a fish.
Stop by and sharpen your eye so that you too can enjoy seeing these majestic birds at Jordan Lake.
Godiva head shot

By blue hour kingfisher

The color in this photo is natural…I took the photo during the “blue hour”.
Actually the “hour” is about 30 minutes long.
The beautiful blues occur twice a day and are fleeting
and even though the colors happen they are not always photographable.
I usually catch these conditions in the fall and early winter.

blue hour kingfisher