Bay Photos by Donna

What a hectic past few weeks!  I’m quite behind on my photos (who isn’t haha), more on my excuse in a bit.   But I have to say it’s been neat having several species of our winter’s waterfowl still lingering around before they take off north, the temps have been in the 30’s to 40’s just as these birds are used to, we even got a couple inches of snow (thank goodness it wasn’t more!).  It’s also  been so exciting with the arrival of our Osprey, they have to be wondering like the rest of us, “Who said it was Spring yet?”

Rafts of winter ducks still dot Marshy Creek every evening, mostly Canvasbacks, Buffleheads, Ruddy Ducks, and even for a few days there were Tundra Swans and Surf Scoters.

This is the first year I’ve seen Ruddy Ducks hanging around in larger numbers.  Loved it!  They’ve even come in closer to the berm and in our marina more than I remember.

It was cool to see Surf Scoters visiting again, we had about two dozen visiting to feed in the mornings and then they would return in the evening.  They briefly came in close to our Osprey nest platform.  🙂

The Tundra Swans have mostly left, but I did hear a few before dawn this morning while trying to photograph the moon setting (photo in a bit).  I will miss their grace and beauty!

The American Coots have also been here this past season in larger numbers it seems.  A cute, quirky duck!

A couple Canada Geese weren’t too happen I was photographing them.

As most, we have Mallards year-round.  While hanging on my balcony and they just happen along when the sun is shining nicely on them, I may practice with them but I do find them really attractive to photograph!

I must include captures of our visiting Great Blue Heron.  He is proof we have some great fishing along our berm!

I love scanning the trees over at CBEC with my binoculars to hunt for the American Bald Eagles that reside there.  I constantly see three but have seen four at one time perched there.  For those in the community, here’s where to look!

While this pair was perched close to their nest, this next one was perched on the CBEC Osprey nest platform.  I haven’t seen any Osprey return to that one platform yet.  Could be because the Eagles keep using it as a perch, distracting the Osprey.  We’ll have to wait and see.

This next fella kept flying around me thinking I was going to toss him something from my balcony.  He finally landed below me.

A few more shots that I took enroute to/from work that I wanted to share.  It’s been over two weeks now since our last sighting, but we had been continuing to see a small flock of Snow Geese on the farm down Rt 301 at Rolling Bridge Road.  Sometimes they were literally right alongside the dual highway!  I think they knew Spring was going to be late, lol.

I wanted to show the Snow Geese again because I had spotted this ‘odd’ one in the crowd.  He is a Blue Goose, a type of Snow Goose, but more rare on the East Coast.  Out of the whole flock, I did not see another one.

Finally, I will leave you with these two shots from this morning of the moon setting an hour before sunrise.  With the eye, it was gorgeous.  I’m a work-in-progress with low light dusk and dawn shots but was tickled with these and couldn’t decide which to post so you get both.  The rest were awful!

I have so many more photos I didn’t get to!  And I have to apologize for my ‘poor’ narrative, it’s not my usual.  And so my excuse.  I’ve been struggling with 24/7 pain in my right shoulder for some time now.  After admitting to being hard-headed, I went to the doc’s in January (one of my New Year’s resolutions, see the doctor & get healthier!).  Complained, xray, five weeks therapy, meds, and it got worse.  Three weeks ago I was finally sent to an orthopedic surgeon.  Long story short, I will be having shoulder surgery tomorrow for a rotator cuff tear and bone spur impingements.  I knew they should have ordered an MRI in January!  Oh well, I’m here now and ready to take care of this annoyance.   My biggest worry?  When will I be able to hold my camera again?!  🙂   It may be a while, but I do have a tripod so we’ll see.  I certainly have tons of photos from the past still unviewed to work on when I can start doing that.  So just a heads up, if I don’t show back up with a post for a few weeks or if I do with just a photo or two, you know why.  I didn’t want to leave my blogger friends hanging, wondering what happened to me!  We do that to each other, don’t we?!  🙂   I do have a plan, to catch up on my blog reading for sure!

No need to worry about me, I’ll be fine.  I’m a toughie.  As always, thank you for stopping by, I appreciate you!