Watch where you step!

(I recommend clicking all these photos larger to see the detail.)

Sharon and I went to Bear Island to photograph tundra swans yesterday--will show you some soon--and then decided to drive through Donnelly WMA on the way home. We usually stop here at the Savage Backwater and walk out on the dike to the little observation platform to see water birds.

Today we decided not to....

There were 12 of them! My friend who had been there earlier in the day said forty were counted around the whole pond.

This is the view from where we normally park. The big mama whose head faces left is over 10 feet long.

"I see you too!"

Snowy egret

A snowy egret was very cooperative the other day at Donnelly Wildlife Management Area. He's sitting on a trunk that controls the water into what used to be rice fields and are now water fowl havens. The trunk opens or closes to let water in or out with the tide and can be controlled by the managers to the optimum depth for the birds and the plants that they feed on at various seasons.

Don't forget the Great Backyard Bird Count this coming weekend!