Part 4: Birds we saw on the trip.......

The afternoon we arrived at Muscatatuck, the rains had just gone through and the lakes were high and were spilling over the spillways. Two of the gravel roads were closed for high water, but were open the next day when we went back.You can see the water rushing over the spillways. I kept wondering if baby geese ever get sucked in and if they just pop up on the other side if they do go in. Scary!
The water rushing out the other side. Later there were geese settling down for the night in the long grass on the left side.

I liked this flowering bush out in the water and all the vegetation.

It was nice of this Great Blue Heron to pose right there among the yellow flowers :-) He was busy hunting. The only one we saw this close to the road.

Off the other side of one lake this Egret and Heron were both hunting. There were 3 more herons stalking nearby.

The egret was on the driver's side of the car and we were afraid to get out and spook it, so Mike took these shots. It would move short distances from time to time.

I wish they could be cropped more, but the low light didn't make for really detailed photos.

We saw lots of Kingbirds and I always think they are pretty :-) They were easier to photograph then many of the other birds that flitted back and forth across the wooded areas.

I don't think this one read the sign.

Cattails make a good perch for bug catching.

A Red-Headed Woodpecker high on a branch. He refused to get in a better position for photos....some birds are just so un-cooperative :-)

The Flicker was even worse....he wouldn't come out of the weeds! Can you see him? We saw every woodpecker from the eastern part of the US except the sapsucker before we headed home.

A noisy Red-Wing Blackbird always wanting to make sure everyone knew we were there and that he didn't like us.

A female Cowbird?

Almost all the birds we saw, I can see at home at my feeders, but I enjoy getting to see them in their natural habitat sometimes.

Robin.....I think this one was at the motel, but I saw them in the trees and fields, too.

At Clifty Falls I spotted this Red-Bellied Woodpecker and his mate going in and out of this tree hole. I like finding out where they live.

Catbird enjoying a mud puddle bath in the middle of the road.

While Mike was getting us a motel room at the Riverboat Inn, I saw a tree full of Waxwings! Wasn't sure what they were at first....there were about 9 of them. Couldn't see anything on that tree to attract them.

A little closer shot of three of them.

Nothing terribly out of the ordinary, but birding is often that way. It was nice to know that there are healthy groups of all these birds over in that part of Indiana. I know that Muscatatuck is loaded with birds that I've never seen before and didn't see this time, but we will go back some day.....and who knows what we will see next time!