Hovey Lake part 1.....

Thursday we decided to drive out to Hovey Lake, which is southwest of Mt. Vernon, Indiana and about as far into the tip of the state as you can get. It is a 1400 acre oxbow lake near where the Ohio River and Wabash River meet. It is a great area for wildlife, but not always easily accessible to those without a boat. This shot from the boat ramp gives an idea of how large the lake is in one direction. There are small marches, sloughs, etc. around it and woods and fields.
Way out there we could see some white birds on the frozen icy water.....gulls.

I always like how the trees look and like to take photos of the reflections.

A line of trees out in the water.

Looking up!

We were taking turns leaning against this nice big tree trying to take photos of the eagle shown below :-) Always nice to have something to help steady the camera.

I just liked how this looked at the edge of the lake.

Way out there we could see a huge line of ducks or geese and another line further out. I show these distant shots to give an idea of what we are working against trying to get any photos.

This was with my standard lens.

This is with the new extender lens! Helps a lot, but still not well focused. I can tell that it is mostly ducks. There were lots of Mallards and some Canada Geese and White-fronted geese mixed in and I don't know what other kinds of ducks.

I can pick out Pintail Ducks in this isolated line with the Mallards and geese.

Another distant shot.....see that tiny black speck with the white head? An Eagle!
Without the new lens that is the best shot we would have had.

Even with the lens he is way out there!

But he made the drive well worth while :-)

There is a path that leads between one end of the lake and a slough/marsh area that you can walk if the water isn't high. We no sooner got there and we noticed a few geese and ducks were hiding out there instead of on the big lake. Right next to the bank are a whole group of green heads belonging to Mallards and I can see a Shoveler in the water mid way in front of the geese. They all took off as soon as we showed up.

I usually see at least one Red-headed woodpecker in the marsh trees.

A Golden-crowned Kinglet! Not a bird I have seen very often. There were two of them in the little bushes sticking out of the water.

He leaped when I took this, but it shows a bit of the more orange/yellow color of its crest.

A side view. He moved around a lot and I had trouble keeping up with him :-)

A White-breasted Nuthatch looking for bugs. I would like to spend more time looking for the little birds in this area.

Some evidence of Beavers

Timber! We saw 2-3 trees that were gnawed though this far.

The dams they are building?

Not well focused....as usual for my flying shots....but these appear to be mostly Snow Geese. Don't know where they were hanging out. Not in the part of the lake we could see. Actually, the place in Henderson where we watch Snow Geese is probably not that far away on the other side of the river.

Some more photos tomorrow of things I found interesting in the area and a few hawks. We saw dozens of hawks, but most flew away or were soaring.