A Variety of Visiting Birds at Oyster Cove
I am truly amazed and thankful over and over again when I think how fortunate I am to get to enjoy such a variety of birds from my ‘backyard’ from my third floor balcony overlooking Marshy Creek, Prospect Bay, and Kent Narrows and within the community. To my OC community neighbors, keep your eyes opened and binoculars and cameras always ready to check out what’s visiting! With my busy schedule, I really only have an hour or so in the mornings at sunrise and an hour if I’m lucky before sunset to stand on my balcony to watch and photograph. Here’s the variety I’ve seen these past few weeks in that short time span each day without really trying! Note, the early morning and evening hours usually afford you more sightings when birds are out and about flying and feeding.
And now onto the birds! I’ll start with some Scaup shots. I really tried to research and properly identify which type of Scaup they were, Greater or Lesser, both are so close in looks. I decided they were Lesser Scaup by their head shape and ‘greyer’ feathers, but someone please correct me if I’m wrong!
Lesser Scaup Male
Lesser Scaup Males
Lesser Scaup Males on another day
Canada Geese hung around for several days in the cove alongside us, trying to stay out of the winds we were experiencing.
Canada Geese
Canada Geese
Canada Geese in flight
A regular off and on are the American Coots.
American Coots
American Coot
American Coots
Here’s someone who kept flying by me begging for a snack or a photo op. He got the op!
Ring-billed Gull
This next fella was not interested in a photo op, once he saw me, he moved away from the berm and quickly swam to a safer distance to dive and feed.
Cormorant
Out on the water, large rafts of ducks appear as they fly in to meet up with others. Life is safer in numbers!
Canvasbacks
Raft of Canvasbacks
For two days I saw six Tundra Swan also hanging around. This pair were really photogenic even on a cloudy day when the snow showers were beginning.
Tundra Swan
Tundra Swan
Tundra Swan “heart”
Our House Finch residents are always happily flying around, sometimes they like to watch me photograph other birds. It’s always a challenge to spin around and catch a shot of them before they take off. Got both the Mr & Mrs this time!
House Finch Male
House Finch Female
House Finch Male returning for another visit with me!
With so many Mallard Ducks around all year round, I tend to not photograph them often. With the temps in the upper teens early one morning, I watched these curled up sleepers on the berm under the osprey platform. On the rocks are barnacles.
Mallard Ducks
My next two birds are newbies for me and neither are the best of shots, but I had to show them! 🙂
Longtailed Ducks
Horned Grebe Female
Horned Grebe Female
Finally, I cannot do a post of bird photos without sharing at least a few of our daily visitor now for several months, our Great Blue Heron. 🙂
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Additional recently visiting birds not shown here but are here at Oyster Cove are Buffleheads, Ruddy Ducks, Surf Scoters, a Belted Kingfisher and the mesmerizing American Bald Eagle. Yes OC neighbors, we have eagles in the skies more regularly now. I watched early Sunday morning six of them flying over Marshy Creek, two pairs trying to steal a fish from a female eagle sitting on the ice. I’ve yet to go thru the numerous shots I took to see how good any might be, the distant they were at and the frigid temps were a bummer for my lens. Hopefully some are good enough to show some action fight shots in my next post.
Whew! What a bunch of photos, sorry about the long post! It proves to me I need to post more often. So a BIG thank you for taking the time to stop by and view my post, I hope you had a cup of coffee or tea to enjoy during your visit! 🙂
I would like it if you posted more often, but with the same number of photos! I never get tired of seeing the wonderful shots you get.
Thank you Jerry! I wish I had more time for myself to post more often too. I keep trying, lol. 🙂
Oh yes – I have coffee and I needed it to view the icy waters those birds swim in! Thanks for posting a good variety birds and the ever changing water-the reflections in the scaup photos are lovely and the GBH seems content and regal in the frigid foam. You did good!!
I get cold just watching the ducks dive in that cold water, brrrrrr…..! Thanks Beth!
What a wonderful place to live with so many birds to see and to take excellent pictures of. Of course the heron wins every time.
Thanks Tom! Watching the migrating waterfowl around the Chesapeake Bay waterways is indeed wonderful, there’s always something to photograph. And yep, that GBH is a winner for sure, he is definitely photogenic! 🙂
I didn’t mind the length of your post at all, Donna. I loved your photos, and I especially liked the awesome images of the Great Blue Heron.
Thanks Bob! Our GBH is really a thrill to just watch through the binoculars too. He may not move much, but the darting of his piercing eyes as he keeps a look-out of his surroundings is pretty amazing. I’ve grown accustomed to his presence and he mine & all the neighbors, I even think he likes his picture taken! LOL 🙂
Even when you are busy, those two hours in the day are most fulfilling for both you and your viewers.Like your shots.Thank you. GBH is great and like to watch the behaviour of the pied bill grebes.
Those two hours do indeed give me tremendous R&R from the rat race of life. Wish I could do it all day long! 🙂 Thanks Jane!
I like long posts. Keep them coming. On my drive/hike today I saw one coot and one pied billed grebe.
It’s funny, my routine is after I’ve decided what photos to post, I run thru each species once more and then delete the least liked to try & limit my post length. So you can imagine how much longer they could be! LOL 🙂 Great to hear you sighted a coot & grebe too, thanks Kathy!
LOVE all the photos! Do you get oyster catchers where you are?
Thanks possumtree! No we don’t that I have ever seen, but I wish we did, they are pretty cool looking!