Holiday Birds

A Flight of Cormorants

Spending the holidays at the lake has given me several opportunities to grab some pictures of the birds that winter here. I thought I would share some of these with you.

The photo above shows just a portion - perhaps less than a third - of a huge number of cormorants (known as a flight) that took off as we were cruising down the shoreline. It was an amazing sight as they just kept coming and coming.

Stork on the Roof?
In the Netherlands and the Scandinavia storks on the roof are omens of good fortune. I have never seen a stork on Lake Conroe, but I do see plenty of great blue herons, so let's use the heron as our symbol of luck for the coming year, with this guy perched on a lakeside rooftop.

Great blue herons are most plentiful on our lake, and you are likely to see one at the end of almost any dock or wading along the shore looking for dinner.

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Ospreys

If you have water and fish, you should expect to see an osprey or two. Well, we have figured out where two of them hang out. One has a favorite old dead tree behind the boat sheds, not far from where our RV is parked. The other favors a an old piling that is at the end of a narrow cove on the other side of the lake.

This week we were in the right places at the right times and I managed to grab photos of both of them, including one enjoying a noontime meal.

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Are You Looking at Me?

My Compliments to the Chef

Rulers of the Lake
For me, I am always looking for a bald eagle when we are out on the lake. There are not that many of them around here, so each sighting is a bit of an event for us. No matter what the bird, to me none is as special as the bald eagle.  Yesterday we our good fortune was doubled as we not only saw a pair of eagles together, but were able to get close enough to them for some pretty good pictures. 

The two of them were nice enough to pose for me for a few minutes as we jockeyed the boat as close as we could. Then the male - the smaller of the two - took off, and his mate stayed around for a few more shots, looking incredibly regal.

Remember, you can click on any photo to see a larger version.

I am Eagle!

Mr. and Mrs.

"Yes, Dear"

​Winter Visitors

A Pod of White Pelicans

We'll finish with a pod of white pelicans. We only see these guys in the winter, and we had not seen them at all this year so Linda was wondering where they were. We decided to go looking for them and found this pod (83 by my count in the photo) on a little spit of land up one of the many creeks that line the shore of the lake.

Cleared for Landing

​HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!