Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Some Lake Erie Birds

On Monday afternoon I was out shopping and found myself next to Lake Erie. It was a beautiful sunny day -- quite rare around here lately -- and I had brought my camera and binoculars with me, so I settled down on the town's public beach to watch the water.

I guess I still haven't posted much here about this Great Lake, which is crazy, because I'm astonished every time I encounter it. This lake is so much more ocean-like to me than the Long Island Sound (which is my ocean paradigm after living in Connecticut) mostly because I can't see the land on the other side, and also because I've already seen bigger waves here than I usually saw in Connecticut. On Monday, though, the lake was surreal, with flat, barely moving water that blended exactly with the sky in the low afternoon light. This has got to be one of the strangest landscapes (or maybe make that water-scapes) I've seen:
 

It took a big passing barge to create the horizon with its wake:
 

Aside from the amazing water-scenery, I had a lot of fun meeting the local birds as well. Ring-billed Gulls made up most of the population, and the lighting was just perfect for pictures of these handsome birds as they moved from water to shore:
 

There was quite a bit of jostling on the beach every time one of the gulls came in for a landing:


The Ring-billed Gulls made handsome sights on the reflective water as well:


But mostly I just had way too much fun taking pictures of them in flight:
 

A Great Black-Backed Gull loomed over the smaller Ring-billed Gulls from its rock:
 

Several ducks made brief appearances as well. These two female (or immature male) Buffleheads came closer to shore when the barge went past:
 

And then they took off in a series of splashes:
 

This bigger group of Buffleheads made a water landing a little further away, the males showing off their pink clown feet (ducks can be so funny looking):
 

A few Common Mergansers flew past, too, a bit like arrows with those pointy beaks:
 

With so many interesting creatures and sights, visiting Lake Erie is always a good idea.

3 comments:

  1. You must drive around and see this side of it sometime!

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    Replies
    1. Ah, so it DOES have another side! Maybe I'll make it over there someday.

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  2. "It took a big passing barge to create the horizon with its wake" These are beautiful!

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