The Snow Geese have arrived in the Henderson, KY river bottoms area.....

The weather is really mild right now so we went out for a drive to Henderson along the river bottoms area where the Snow Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese and some ducks spend the winter.  We found a nice group of them not too far from one of the viewing areas and got some photos.

 If you search the photos you can usually find examples of the White adults, the Dark adults, and the juveniles of each.  The Greater-White-fronted Geese mostly hang out a little bit separate from the Snow Geese.

 These two photos give a more distant look of how they gather along the wet areas.

 I look forward to seeing these birds every year.  We never know what we will see and whether they will be close enough to get good photos or not.  Didn't see any swans yet this year.  The largest flooded field didn't have a single bird in the water or among the corn rows.  We will go back in a few weeks and see if more birds arrive.

 My flying shots are so-so.  I used to get better ones with my old camera.

 I love to watch them land.  It also gives you a view of what their back looks like in the darker adults.

A group of White-fronts.

Spring birds in the yard....

I've been enjoying the mild weather and sitting in the yard a lot so here are a few spring visiting birds at my feeders.

The most noticeable spring time visitor is always the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.  They come through for about a month and them move on northward. 

 The male is so strikingly beautiful.

The female is less colorful but still a beautiful bird.

Another summer visitor is the Indigo Bunting.  There are times when my driveway is filled with red birds, blue birds and yellow birds....making a really colorful array!

This one was a wonderful surprise because I have not seen one in my yard before!  I believe this is the Great Crested Flycatcher and God sent him on my birthday, so I thought that was a pretty nice present!

 The Chipping Sparrow is one of my favorites.  Very small and quiet.  It just hops around in the drive looking for food.

 I've had a lovely male Towhee showing up occasionally.

 The Goldfinch male is in his summer bright yellow.

We had a swarm of bees pass through the neighborhood!  Mike was out walking and spotted them just as they landed on this tree.  So he came home for the camera and went back for photos.  They stayed for a couple of days and them moved on.

 We have had two pair of Wood Ducks on the lake this year.  I can't seem to get good photos of them.

One of my year round favorites....the Downy woodpeckers

 A White-throated Sparrow.  

 The female Red-Wing Blackbird is a daily visitor.

A pair of the male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.

And back at the wetlands checking on my Eastern Phoebe, I watched it finding bugs to take to its nest, which seems to be under the old iron bridge where I stand to watch turtles.  I need to go back this week and see if there are any little birds flying around yet.  I hope I get to see them.

Eastern Phoebe or Eastern Wood-Peewee???.....

It was great weather for a walk at the wetlands!  The best part of the day for me was this pretty little bird.  I'm never good at identifying these cute little bug eating birds.  I spent about a half hour watching this one flit around from post to bush to tree.  It was a very good photo subject :-)  I really lean toward Phoebe for the ID, but I don't remember noticing the tail wagging it is suppose to do.  Maybe it is something totally different?

 I don't usually find a bird so willing to pose from every angle.

 A fortunate shot as it took off.

And what would a walk at the wetlands be without a few turtle shots of the hundreds of turtles that live there.

 They were filling every log they could find that was above the water level.

Can you count them, Rose? :-)

And this spider eating a damselfly was interesting?

Just found out that this is a Six-Spotted Fishing Spider.  Makes sense since it was fishing in the creek.

Maybe with the weather getting nice, I will get out more and get some photos taken.  We are in the process of trying to sell our house and downsize, but so far no takers.  It is a frustrating process and a slow one.  Getting out was a nice change of scenery.