Watery Wednesday at Blue Grass....

Mike had half the day off, so we went to Blue Grass looking for water fowl, giving me some "Watery Wednesday" shots! (I find it hard to keep track of what day of the week it is right now over the holidays!) I'll post some water first and the lovely grasses that grow all around these stripper pit lakes.
However, this came first.....we saw this hawk on the way there and even though we turned the car around and came back past him twice, he didn't even move! Not sure what he is looking at here, but it isn't me!

Here he turned his head.

Back to the water :-) I spooked this Great Blue Heron first thing when we stopped to take photos of some ducks we saw on one of the lakes......

.....actually they turned out to be Coots.
Didn't really see any other water fowl at all.

So I practiced taking photos of grasses and tried to capture hawks.

I like the big tall grasses that grow around these lakes.

Mike was playing with the manual focus here.....much more successfully than when I tried.

I like the light glinting off the cattails.

We wondered if this was a beaver lodge, or just a pile of debris.

As we left we saw a cat at a nearby farm sunning itself while watching the starlings in the trees.

I saw a lot of soaring birds in the distance, but these are the best shots of them over the meadows around the lakes.

Just couldn't get close enough to get anything better.

On the way home we took a back route to look for more hawks on poles and found this guy.

As he took off I snapped this quick shot that caught him straight on from the side. I'm just not quick enough on these birds that take off so fast. Mike is usually getting the car stopped and I'm bouncing around and can't get the shot in focus before it is too late. Will keep practicing!
For more Watery Wednesday, click on my sidebar icon.

Thanks to 2sweetnsaxy for hosting!

Nothing but squirrels....

No....I'm not confused. I know it is Tuesday, not Sunday.

However I will be sharing my car with my son for awhile, so I am not getting out to take many photos. The birds at home are not being very cooperative for some reason....weather is too nice, I guess. All I saw today worth snapping were squirrels. Checking out some seeds I left behind the corn. They only eat the corn when nothing else is available. Spoiled rotten!
But at least he gave me a couple of poses.

This is a park squirrel....not to be confused with my home squirrels :-) I made a quick drive through Garvin Park while out on an errand, but didn't see much....except squirrels!

Shooting through the car windshield doesn't give as nice a photo unfortunately!

That's it! Maybe tomorrow will be a better bird day.

Trying to get back to normal.....

Well...things have been up and down over the holidays. Our weather is really strange right now. 2 days before Christmas we had a period for about 2-3 hours with icy rain. Our son slid into a power pole doing this damage to our jeep. Thankfully, he is fine....a swollen banged up knee. I had a photo of the new power pole we are responsible for paying for, but I can't find it. With the holidays we haven't found out yet how expensive the jeep damage will be. Power poles always seem to win in a head to head battle.
I got this book for Christmas from my sister, Marge and am looking forward to exploring it and the DVD that came with it, when I get some normal time again. The DVD is about his Falkland Island 70th birthday trip. Looks pretty good!

Ozma thinks that golf played from a recliner has definite advantages over the real thing. So does Mike.

I've been out a little but not really seeking photos or with a destination in mind. This was from the car on the way home from somewhere.

A downy female back home.

A goldfinch on the bag. The birds have been rather few and far between the last few days. We have had temps as warm as 70 and as low as 40 in the day time! Good build up for a tornado if this keeps up.

An Opossum, the only marsupial found in America.......a not-so-welcome visitor. He digs around under the feeders seeing what he can find. I think they are nasty looking and don't really like having them around. He climbs on the deck and emptys any feeder he can reach. They are so hard to scare off that he didn't mind me opening the door and taking flash photos.

We've had some dramatic skies with all the strange weather. I'll save some for Skywatch since I haven't participated for a couple of weeks :-)
Well, tomorrow it is back to work and trying to get back to a normal schedule....until New Years arrives and messes up the week again!

Squirrel Sunday.....

The Star wishes you a very Merry Christmas.....late....but squirrels don't know much about holidays!(These were with the old camera and through a bad window with lots of glare)

"What are these? Are they edible???"

"Pears?.....I think I like sunflower seeds better."

See you next year!

The only snow I see are geese....

We went back to Henderson Slough so I could see if I could get better photos with the new camera.......I'm certainly convinced! The camera doesn't make up for what I don't know how to do as a photographer, but it sure gave me better photos to work with for cropping. (click on any photo to make it larger) In a small pond a group of ducks were swimming and these Mallards all decided to take off at once.
Mixed in with them are these "mystery" ducks (?) with white or light color on the face. Any ideas? I see nothing in my book that looks like them. (I've learned that the mystery ducks are American Widgeons)

Is this a Black Duck tagging along? Or just a dark looking female Mallard?

Again....a few of these look like they might be Black Ducks.


The goose mixture was still there that we saw last week, but my photos are much sharper and I can even crop them closer without them being blurred.

Last week we saw the White Fronted Geese and the Snow Geese, but I did not notice the 2 different types of Snow Geese because the photos were not good enough. This time they were very evident and even both kinds of juveniles!

The dark version of the adults is really interesting and varies quite a bit. My book says they winter in the Mississippi River valley, so I guess near the Ohio River is appropriate for them!

They really are beautiful and I was fascinated by them! I know that I'm showing way too many photos, but between my awe at the new camera and the neat geese, I can't help it :-)

Still plenty of the White Fronted Geese mixed in with the Snow Geese.

A couple landing. In general my aerial shots are still terrible, but when down close like this, I do better. Much to learn!

A mixture

Squatting in the water and corn

Several of these shots show both the White and the Dark Snow Geese, plus the junvenile of each type.

Another landing

They love this cornfield.....at least I didn't spook them this time while taking photos.

Ducks and geese

Well.....I probably won't get back there for a while, so that is all the geese you have to look at for now :-) I will certainly remember where to find them next year at this time.

Back to normal and catching up....

Christmas eve day was very rainy I had a driveway full of puddles and sparrows
.....and a wet squirrel :-)

He was gleaning all over the yard for a change and I would swear that I saw him take an ear of corn and stash it in a bush...need to go out and check that. Here he is up in the crab apple tree checking out the feeders.

Christmas eve late I opened the new camera and my first couple of shots were of the only wildlife around at that time of night...

Ozma....looking very silly with her new cat toy on her head. She was not impressed.

Hopey....she liked playing with her new toy, but is resting here.

Christmas morning, I got to try it out on some birds.....a very cute little Goldfinch

The female Cardinal in the leaves

I was busy looking at the feathers on the Cardinal's back...all the little lighter "edgings" that make them stand out at the base of the tail.

Goldfinches on the bag....you get a real mix of tails and wings :-)

White Throated Sparrow

Mrs. C with the House Sparrows....she hangs out with bad company a lot.

The greedy House Sparrows eating everything in sight.

Carolina Wren

That was it for yesterday.....we were busy with family stuff and trying out presents.