Thursday, December 10, 2009

Second take by the lake..

Did ya ever notice that Red-breasted Mergansers get the zoomies?
They don't seem to sit very long before they're up and out of the water flying in circles, only to land back where they started.
Must be bored...


In my last post I mentioned our good bird buddy, Kelly the Peanut and her visit up to the great gray north of Bay Village, Ohio. Besides going out to the Avon Power Plant of the last post, we stopped by Rocky River Park in, duh, Rocky River, Ohio. This is a nice, small city park right along the lake with great views of the comings and goings of our feathered friends.

There had been sightings of all three Scoters, both Scaup and a Bald Eagle. But you know if Loopy is going to be there, they are going to be hiding. Not a butt in sight. Oh well. We did see plenty of others to keep us happy!

The number of Mergansers flying past was awesome. Not to mention the gulls zooming to and fro trying to steal fish from the ducks and each other. Here's a few more photos of our second take by the lake...
It's always cool to see Common Goldeneye.
Actually it's always freezing when we see them...

This may give you some idea of the hordes of Mergansers flying past us!

We saw a few Great Black-backed Gulls also.
That was great, wasn't it? What a great bird to see...yep, great...

The Ring-billed and Herring Gulls were just chillin'...
(Sometimes I just crack myself up!)

Stoopid Chipmunk...GET OFF! It's hard to focus with him there!


Thanks again to Kelly for the photo and to Doodles for being the Doodles when needed...

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Birding with a Peanut...

Yeppers, that's a lot of Red-breasted Mergansers!


It's always fun when you go birding with someone from a different area. Kelly, of "Red and the Peanut" fame came up north for a hockey tourney with her hubby and son, and of course, ditched them to come birding with me and the Doodles.

We live very close to the shores of Lake Erie and often take the lake for granted. When 'Peanut' said she was coming up and wanted to do a little birding, we were befuddled with the many choices of great birding areas that we have in northern Ohio. She read about the flocks of Mergansers that fly along the lake front this time of year, so we made that the priority...after giving a tour of our gardens and home...sans chipmunks (they're hibernating luckily!)

Kelly has done two posts with great pics of the lake and the Mergs and Gulls. As usual, I have to put my two cents worth in also! Well, maybe a penny and a half...the economy isn't all that great up here...

I'm a mean man! I only had my 300mm lens, so they had to walk to the end of a pier in the driving wind and freezing cold to be able to fit into the frame. Brrrr....much colder than Cincinnati, huh Kelly?

Be careful if a Merganser tells you to "Put it on my bill!" That thing goes on forever!

Look carefully, this will be the Doodles next hairdo...she told me...really...very trendy...

Did I mention the two or three Ring-billed Gulls we saw?

While walking back to the PeanutMobile, we spotted an Eastern Bluebird.
He sure brightened an otherwise drab and frigid day.
Since Bob the chipmunk has taken control of my life, I have to take him birding too!
He wants his own spotting scope, but I told him he has to share.
Thanks to Kelly for this photo of Bob!
Silly girl, she thinks he's cute, she doesn't realize how evil he is...