Canadian Geese and Blackwater NWR Excitement
Our winter waterfowl are quickly disappearing as they begin their return trips back north. A few evenings ago we had a small raft of ruddy ducks just behind our osprey nest lazily floating along and resting.
As I was watching them, I saw a small flock of Canadian geese coming in; I captured this neat shot of them landing to my right as the sun was beginning to set.
Yesterday afternoon, we had more Canadian geese visiting; however, this time they were on our grass at the osprey nest point. As some rested, others were munching away on our grass. We love our waterfowl, but we love our grass too! After I let them see some obvious movement from me, about half took a quick low flight and landed in the water in the cove to my right. These next shots are those that didn’t take off; they hung back and watched to see if the ones that did landed okay and were safe. After some ‘talking’ between both groups, the second group joined them. I was glad they stopped eating our grass! 🙂
We might not have much excitement going on, but very soon our osprey will return; and I am very excited about following their 2011 season with us at Oyster Cove and to share my sightings and photos with you. If you want to be alerted by email each time I issue a new post and photos, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the right-hand column. Rest assured your email will not be shared; and if you wish to discontinue receiving the email alerts, it is easy to unsubscribe.
I want to share BIG excitement at Blackwater Refuge’s eagle cam that I have been following. The parents produced three eggs, and yesterday their first eaglet arrived! The following is a shot captured this morning of the healthy-looking chick. You can see his egg has been pushed out of the nest cup by one of the parents to make room and keep it tidy.
Photos courtesy of Friends of Blackwater NWR
Isn’t he cute??!!!! The second egg is due to hatch today or tomorrow. Click HERE to jump to the eagle cam and be amazed when you catch a glimpse of the miracle of birth in the wild! Children and grandchildren will love this! UPDATE Monday 2/21/11 – The second egg hatched this morning! The third egg is due to hatch Tuesday-Thursday.
Photo courtesy of Friends of Blackwater NWR
Finally, I’ve been working on several photo gallery pages and have completed my Eagle Photo Page, which follows this post. For later access at your leisure, this page will be easily found through the Category drop-down lists and on the Photo Galleries tab at the top of the home page. I am setting up more photo pages and hope to publish them in the next few days.
Have a great week!
