Dupont Nature Center – Part 2

We stopped along the road that connects the Dupont Nature Center to the road on higher ground since it was a place that clapper rails are seen frequently. Our guide played the call of the bird…and we heard a response! We did see peeps on the mud flats that were studded with snails; I took a few pictures as we waited for the rail to show itself. But the bird did not make an appearance.

Our group caravanned to several beaches near the Dupont Nature Center. The red roof of the Nature Center was visible from the first one. 

The tide was going out…not many birds around since it was too early for the horseshoe crabs to have laid their eggs. I photographed the debris at the high tide make…welk egg cases, pieces of horseshoe crab shells and broken or conglomerate shells.

On another beach, there were gulls (probably juvenile ring-billed gulls) finding dinner! The clouds were thickening and the lightning was not very good for photography by this time. We called it a day and headed home.

Josey Ranch Lake – March 2017

I saw a lot of the same birds on the lake at Josey Ranch in Carrollton TX as I did back in January. The coots were still around. A pigeons mingled with them in the first picture below. I observed more instances of them running on the water to take off into the air this time (second picture).

The ring-billed gulls were looking scruffy with their feathers ruffled by the wind.

There were several types of black birds making a lot of noise. This one was probably a great-tailed grackle.

A male and female mallard walked right up to me (see the toe of my shoe in the second picture below!). Maybe they thought I had bread for them. The female seemed to be trying to avoid several males that were trying to herd her in different directions.

The male pigeons were intent as well…and the females not enthusiastic about their pursuit.

The lesser scaup were still plentiful. They’ll be heading north to their breeding grounds in the as the season warms. There appeared to be a lot more males than females on the lake. (A coot mingled with the scaup in the third picture.)

There were a few northern shoveler ducks on the lake. The only one I got zoomed close and focused flew off just as I took the picture. The bright orange of the legs and feet are clearly visible.

The swans (mute swans…not native to North America)  are nesting. One was swimming on the lake (a juvenile?) while there appeared to be two more barely visible above the cattails and grasses…sitting on their nest. Hopefully I’ll be back at a time that the cygnet(s) would be out on the lake.

It was cold, cloudy, and blustery morning when it visited the area….I made it quick and headed back indoors…and then flew home to Maryland later in the day.

Disappointment at Conowingo

The weather was a little warmer than usual when we made our trek to Conowingo last week. The weather turned out to be the best part. The eagles must have finished their breakfast by the time we got there and were not very active; this was the best picture I got – from all the way across the river. You can tell that those rocks are favorite perches (all the ‘white’).

The black vultures were not very photogenic either. The big grouping that usually eyeballs cars going over the dam from a fence only numbered three birds. The others must have been out and about – maybe at some substantial carrion site.

At first I thought the cormorants would redeem the trip. There were at least two of them and they were within photographic range. But then I realized that the reason they were staying in one location was a tangled (and trashed) fishing lure rather than a fish (you can see it (light green) and the line that evidently snagged it to the rocky bottom in the middle picture below).

There were a few gulls about. I tried taking pictures of them as they landed or flew up from the water. The one with the orange spot on the bill is a Herring Gull. The other one could be a Ring-billed Gull since the beak looks like it has black instead of orange toward the end.

There were two Canadian Geese in the shallows on the other side of the dam abutment – almost out of camera range.

The same was true for a flock of pigeons. They usual are on the dam structure but they must have been startled by something because a large number left the dam at the same time and moved to the rocks.

On a botanical note – the Princess tree buds still look the same as they did last time we were at Conowingo. The buds on the tulip poplars (at the end of the twigs) seem to be getting larger.

On the way home, I took a picture of the mounds of salt along I-95 near the tunnel (through a dirty window). Generally the salt piles are significantly reduced by this time of year….but not this season. I wonder what will happen to it since the salt storage buildings are probably already full.