Squirrel Sunday (Ok...Monday) and the last of my Ohio photos.....

I meant to post this yesterday. 

This squirrel was outside the nature center at Maumee Bay State Park.  We were in the nature center for at least a half hour and this squirrel never moved....or blinked.  I was beginning to wonder if it was stuffed!

I should make this one a caption contest.  Anyone have a good caption for this squirrel?

A birdhouse outside the center

They have a really neat statue, but it was hard to find a good spot to take a photo. I love how it shows all the different layers of nature here.

A Downy enjoying the tree in the feeding area.

Goldfinches doing the same.

There were two really cute little owls who are injured and can't be released in the wild.

A snake keeping warm under the lights.

Along the lake front there are numerous nature reserve areas.  This place gives tours, and I like their barn.  I'd really like to go back to this place with more time for looking at nature.

The weather vane atop the building.

I just liked this beautiful horse out enjoying the grass.

And we found an eagle sitting in a tree who was quite willing to pose for us!  So majestic looking!  He seems to know that he is the "king" of the birds.

This was a drive-by shot on the way there.  One of the many Ohio Bicentennial barn paintings.  They are all over Ohio and you can find many of them on a web site.

I'm sure someone can tell me what this "ghost" pod is that we found on the beach?
(NOTE: I've learned this is a Chinese Lantern pod.  How cool!  Thanks for the ID!)

Gulls, gulls, gulls.......

I was hoping to find some Bonapart Gulls up at Lake Erie, because Becky, at Woodynook Creations, had reported seeing them at her end of the lake.....the New York end.

When we stopped at the man-made lake and beach at Maumee Bay State Park there were a lot of gulls at one end.

I like gulls, even when it is only the very common Ring-billed Gulls like these.

They were enjoying the shallow water and washing up.

"Why don't you sit down George and rest your legs?"

"Leave me alone....I'm perfectly happy right here!"

Over near the beach on the bay, we saw these two at the edge of a parking lot....

....where someone was feeding them.  At least I have a couple in the air here to see their wings.

Two were down picking through the shell layer.

I had given up on finding a Bonapart and shot these 3 out in the field with the swans.  Well....I finally found a couple, but didn't realize it in time to get better shots!  The two on the left are smaller than the big Ring-billed on the left, and they have the black spot behind the eye.  So I did find a couple, but Becky has better shots of them, so check out her blog!

"Seven swans a swimming"......

 OK....I exaggerated.  There are only 5 swans a swimming, but we saw two others in a field.

I believe they are Tundra Swans.....plus a few Canada Geese and Ring-billed Gulls.

The one in front has a neck band.

Can see the band better here.

These are all on a small man-made lake with beach at the Maumee Bay resort.

We were told at the nature center that if we drove along the road we would see fields with 100's of Tundra Swans in them.  However, they must have all been off to the lake when we drove by and we didn't have enough time to go back later.  There were only these two in one flooded field with a few gulls.

Always show the new bird first :-).........

As you can maybe tell by my header shot, I have been somewhere other than southern Indiana.  We spent the last weekend near Toledo, Ohio where we had gone for our nephew's wedding.  We stayed at Maumee Bay State Park, and it is a beautiful place to stay even in the winter.  In between wedding stuff, we went birding (of course!).

I got to see a new bird for me....a Snow Bunting!  I didn't get any really excellent shots, but they sure are cute little birds.  I like the cinnamon color on their heads and the big white patches on the wings.

There were two of them and picking them out of their surroundings was a real challenge at times.

You can see here how well it blends with the driftwood mess on the beach.

"You mean you can't see me???"

My closest shot.  I seem to have a lot of trouble with backgrounds that are light like this, but I know it is the photographer and not the camera :-)  "Point and shoot" just doesn't work well in some settings.

The front and back view.

They have beautiful feathers and patterns.

Strolling the beach together.

There was a large band of shells on the beach and they were picking around in them.

I'm not quite sure if I am looking at Maumee Bay or Lake Erie, but basically it is one and the same.

More photos of birds we saw in my next post.

Back over to Henderson looking for the Snow Geese.....

Went back to Henderson, KY to look for geese again today.  Saw lots of good stuff as always when we go there.  We saw at least 5 hawks because I have photos of that many.

This was by far the only really good (half way decent) shot.  He flew off and circled around and landed in a tree right by the car just as we were getting ready to drive on down the road. 

I'll only show one other hawk.  Have no idea what kind, but we see more Red-tailed than anything.

Next came the flooded field that had sandpipers last time and ducks this time.  Water was high everywhere we went.  Wouldn't take much more to flood the road.  I can tell there are Mallards and Shovelers.  I think that was it.

Later I spooked a different bunch of ducks that were swimming with some Coots.  The coots stayed behind.  I like the way they sort of run on the water when they take off somewhere.

Finally got to a large flooded field with lots of geese! A distant shot of part of it to give you an idea of the size and distance.

I cropped in on some of the shots.  Definitely Snow Geese mixed with the White-fronted Geese this time!

I'm just putting a mix of shots to show what we see when we go there.

There was never a mass take off to photograph, but small groups flew in to join the bigger group from time to time.

Scattered all over the field.

In the back of this shot you can see at least 6 large white swans....mostly with their heads in the water.

Here are two more we saw later and one appears to have something around its neck.  Looks very uncomfortable! (NOTE: I realize now that this is how they band swans....still looks uncomfortable!)

One really big tree sits along this stretch of road and we usually see a hawk in it.  Today there were TWO eagles in it!

The one on the left had the white head of an adult.....

When we returned later I got sort of a back shot of one of them.

......the second one was a younger eagle....and very scruffy looking!

Down the road there were two of the little Grebes in their usual pond.

One of them raised up as I shot.

Saw several large flocks of starlings hanging around the same area.  They were swarming along the road after something or sitting in groups in the trees.

Always a great place to see birds!