First snowfall of the winter (actually the fall)......

The day started out rainy, but by mid-morning it turned to wet snow.

A Downy coming for some suet.

Our road as the snow falls.  Not much snow compared to what you "northerners" might be getting, but I don't want any at all until later in the winter!  This is too early....doesn't bode well for later in the winter.

The side yard and my "snowball" house :-)

The lake.

The lilac bushes by the end of the drive.

Mrs. Cardinal (seen through the front door sidelights)

The deck.....it was covered with House Sparrows and Goldfinches just before I took the photo.

A Carolina Wren.....probably wishing it was in the Carolinas!

Found some little bite to eat!

The Forsythia bush tangle along the creek. This is where the Cardinals and Sparrows live all year.

A House Finch getting a seed.

I think the Titmouse is "turning its back" to this weather!

......and of course a "snowbird".....better known as a Junco.

Already while posting this, the snow is melting away......good!

Signs of winter's approach......

I'm beginning to see a bit more feeder activity with the temperatures beginning to drop.

This very "fat" Cardinal is all puffed up to keep warm.  Gives him a rather strange shape from their usual sleek look.

Two winter visitors making their apprearance near the feeders....the White Throated Sparrow and the Towhee.  They may be around all year, but I usually only see them kicking through the leaves at the end of the driveway when winter is making itself known.  They blend so well, it is hard to get a good photo. 

My feeders aren't going to provide very pretty photos this year. 

When the dead dogwood finally fell down, I put together two shepherd's hooks and a chunk of tree limb to take their place until we plant a new tree next spring.  I was hoping it might make the downys feel more at home when they land to find some suet.  This one says, "It works for me!".....but it makes for a very "busy" shot.

Goose Pond.....

It was a cold and dreary day and rained the whole time we were there, but we had to make a trip to the Goose Pond area last week, so we stopped to see what might be there.

Mostly we saw Coots....lots of Coots!  The water was very high on both sides of the road that runs through the middle of the place and one side had a lot of Coots and a fair amount of ducks....who flew away as soon as they saw our car stop.  We saw the ducks again later at a great distance circling a watery area.  Several hundred, but too far to even tell what type.

I would like to have gotten out of the car, but between the rain and no good place to pull off the rather busy road, I just did what I could through the open window of the car.

I'm including a few of these to just give the feel for the area......marsh with fairly high water at the moment.

A pair of Mallards stayed with the Coots for a few shots.

"I don't seem to belong in this group."

Over the grassy fields we had a great day for seeing Harriers, but not much in the way of photos.  There were at least 6 of them scouring this one field!  I have never seen that many together before.  They seemed to be in pairs and it was a large field.  We kept trying to drive along side and stop long enough for some photos, but never got any good ones.

They fly really low over the grass looking for prey.

It was great to know there were so many in the area!

On another small pond we saw a group of 5 Shovelers who were really busy "shoveling" and seldom brought their heads up out of the water.

Caught one here with its head out....finally.

We also saw a couple of deer.....one was running at full speed across one of the shallow marshes.  I tried to get photos, but it was very far away and raining quite a bit at that point.  I could follow the white tail flipping up and down :-)  The other deer seemed to be waiting on the far side.

So much for Goose Pond.  It's a great place, but not much fun in the rain and gloom (at least not with a camera in hand).

This and That.....

Well, I haven't had much to post lately, but here are a few shots I found in the recent files.

The Titmouse is always one of my favorite birds!  They always seem to be smiling and happy :-)

I had a couple of them checking out the seeds and suet the other day.  I have had a lot fewer birds hanging around this summer and fall and hope they are returning for winter food.  Of course with the price of sunflower seed, I can hardly afford to feed them!

I made a brief stop at the wetlands the other day, but didn't see too much of interest.  Always some turtles on the logs, if I keep real quiet.

There were about 6 Mallards hanging around under a large fallen tree, doing some preening.

A lovely male taking a swim.

Hiding near the trunk.

In the marsh area there were 3-4 Coots.   This one was standing on this fallen log.....

.....the others were swimming....

.....then they all thought the log looked like a good idea.  Not much room there for everybody!

"Oh, all right!  I'll go somewhere else!"

The geese are beginning to migrate.......

The first of the migrating geese are beginning to arrive in the Henderson Slough area.  Henderson Slough is a large conservation area of fields, forest, and small lakes that sits in the Ohio River bottomlands west of Henderson, Kentucky.  From October to March each year, all the side gravel roads leading into the Slough are blocked off to any traffic...car or foot...for the benefit of the migrating geese.  This land is surrounded by privately owned fields and a couple of hunt clubs.  You can drive along a 2 mile stretch of public road between the fields in this area.  The Slough management leaves some of the corn standing and floods portions of the fields for the geese.  There will be thousands of geese here as the winter progresses.  I have a sidebar photo that shows some of the huge number of geese we have seen in the past.  It is a thrilling sight when they all take to the air!  When we drove over there last week, there were already a fair size group of mostly Greater-White fronted Geese.  They will be joined by hundreds of Snow Geese eventually.  We saw at least two Snow Geese in the mix the day we were there.

This is an example of how the fields look.......tall corn with cut areas in between where the geese sit.  Ducks join this mixture, too.  Straight back where you see those trees is the Ohio River.  Sometimes you can see a barge going by on the river while looking at the geese!

There were small numbers like this sitting in a couple of the areas.

You can stand on the side of the road to take photos and there are a few viewing stands that aren't necessarily where the geese happen to be at the moment.  I am short and have a lot of trouble seeing over the weeds and corn at the edge of the road.  I need to take a small step stool with me!  Sometimes I just hand the camera to Mike who is 6'4", but what is the fun of that???

I get excited every year as the geese arrive and wish that I could drive over there every day!  It takes about 45 minute for us to drive there since we can't go "straight as the geese fly".  We live northwest of Evansville, IN and by the time we cross over the bridge to Henderson and weave through the high traffic area there and around to the Slough it is a journey too far to make more than once a week.  Luckily, Henderson is one of the cheapest places around to fill your gas tank!  LOL

We didn't see too many in the air the day we were there.  I'm not good at flight shots, but when you get several hundred birds up there, I can usually catch a few :-)

Right before we left the area, the geese had moved over the over side of the road and you can see a couple of the Snow Geese mixed in.  We usually drive the entire stretch of road and look for turkeys, hawks and other interesting things as well.  Sometimes the geese go further back into the Slough property and there aren't any near the road, but not often once the large group arrives.  As you approach the area there are hunters with fields full of decoys along the same road before you reach the Slough property.  The first year we went, I thought I was seeing real geese.....having never seen a field with a hundred decoys in it before.  I always worry about spooking the birds into the air for fear they will fly over that "invisible boundary" that sends them into the hunters territory.  It is amazing to me that they seem to know exactly how far they can go and just circle around the "safe area" and land again.

There was a huge flock of Blackbirds in the trees the day we were there.  The racket they were making was so loud!  Far as I could tell it was Red-Wings, Grackles and Starlings.

On a small flooded field there was one lone Grebe (?) enjoying the solitude.

As we went back past the field where the snipe had been, it now had some ducks in it.  I think they are Green-Winged Teal, but my photos were very distant.  I have learned a lot of different ducks by seeing them during this migration time.

One hawk high up on the power pole.

A Red-tailed Hawk, judging by the "belly band".  I saw his red tail when he flew away.

The road back out of the area.

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If any of you live near enough to come see the geese, let me know you are coming!  We would be happy to act as tour guides or at least to tell you how to find the place.  It seems to me that we see the largest number of geese around Christmas time.  Depends on the weather, I suppose.  Last year when we got the really heavy spring rains, the road to the area became flooded and you could not get near the place.  The Ohio River always floods parts of this area in the spring.  The geese are usually gone by then, but in the past the ducks were around in the spring.
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Links to a couple of my past posts when the snow geese were there:
First visit to the area
Snow geese
Taking blogger friends there
Lots of snow geese
Scattered Flurries

Sandpipers and Killdeer.....

These are more of the birds that were in Henderson with the Snipe.

There was a large flock of Killdeer in the same flooded field.  I think there are about 7 in this photo, plus a few well hidden Snipe, and several Sandpipers in the front.

I am not good at naming Sandpipers....I don't see them too often.  I would guess that they are Yellowlegs....both the Greater and Lesser.  Or they might be Solitary Sandpipers....I really don't know!

I would love to know what they are feeding on in this field.  The bills of all the birds were really jabbing up and down constantly and they seemed content.

Hmmmm.....that doesn't look very tasty.  One of my best side shots if someone wants to make a stab at naming them for sure.

This was one of the larger ones.  You can see the yellow legs and feet.

I think this is one of the smaller ones.

Going deep...tail up :-)

One of the Killdeer.  I love their stripes and funny white patch over the eyes.

"Just me and my reflection"

Three of the sandpipers at work. 

Wading deep

Four plus Killdeer.  Some of these shots have Snipe hidden in them, too.

Snipe in the middle

The smaller ones are about the same size as the Killdeer.

A few more photos to come of the geese that are starting to arrive.