Hovey Lake visit....

Another good birding day!  We drove out to Hovey Lake which is west of Mt. Vernon, Indiana.  It was a beautiful day when we left home with spring-like temperatures and blue skies and sunshine.

 There are always hawks along the fence rows and power poles on the way to the lake.  This was my best shot.....a nice Red-tailed Hawk.  We counted at least 4 hawks on the way there.

Just as we got near the lake we could see this form out on one of the trees in the water and were pretty sure it was an immature eagle.  It has that eagle look to the head and was too big to be anything else.  We saw it again when we were leaving, but it was behind so many branches I didn't get any focused shots of it.

 Along the edge of the lake near where we parked for a look at the lake, Mike spotted this adult eagle up in a tree eating something.

I sneaked out of the car to get his photo, but of course it wasn't his most photogenic side :-)  He flew off so we began wondering where its nest is.  We had seen eagles at the lake before.

Can you see it?????  Way out there the dark spot near the top of one of the trees.  A really big nest and easy to see even with the human eye at that distance.

.......zooming in more.....

....and more plus some cropping.  We think there is an eagle sitting on it. If you zoom in, it is there against the back of the nest with the head facing the left.

This is where we park the car and get out and walk.  On the right is a swampy slough area and on the left is Hovey Lake which is really big.  Not a water bird in sight anywhere.  We did see a few gulls flying around and when we left we thought we saw 3-4 Cormorants.

This is the place where I can always find a Red-headed Woodpecker or two!  This one was sitting at the top of one of the dead trees in the swamp and he took off while I was shooting him.

 Fortunately, he went to the other side of the path where the light was more in my favor.  Checking out this hole.  Could it be his home?  He stuck one foot in and his head and then headed on up the tree.

 Near the top looking around.

 On the way up.....looking for bugs?

 Eyeing the summit.

 He flew to this limb almost over my head, which isn't a very good angle for shooting!

 On the trunk among the branches.

 King of the swamp!

OK....I don't see these often, so I overdo my photos :-)

 A nice male Red-winged Blackbird was buzzing at us.

 He has the Mrs. with him here.  Will be nesting along there soon, imagine.

A sparrow....Tree sparrow maybe?  I don't try very hard to guess when the photos are this distant.

 Flicker

A flooded field with a lot of Mallards, but they flew when I tried to get closer.

All in all a nice day.  It got gloomy as the day progressed and my sunshine went away.  Today we are back to cold temperatures more common for February.
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I posted some dune fence photos on my other blog: This, That and The Other Thing.  I was tired of posting Florida in this blog!