Egrets, Egrets & More Egrets

Oddly enough, at the beginning of Spring Great Blue Herons seemed to occupy the majority of the nests at the Heron Rookery on Old Hickory Lake, along with a few Black Cormorants and Black Crowned Night Herons, and nary a Great White Egret. Fast forward to this week and it's all about the Great White Egrets. They were plentiful at the rookery.

The Egrets were busy flying in and out and in and out of the rookery. And at times creating havoc as they flew in. I'm guessing this guy didn't have clearance from the tower for this landing.

I love to photograph these gorgeous birds as they are so regal looking with their solid white physiques. Hope your week is going well. It's a balmy 81 with virtually no humidity tonight here in Tennessee and I am super happy about it. ENJOY!

'Nesting' Black Crowned Night Herons

A visit to the Heron Rookery on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville Sunday afforded me a plethora of species of birds. Since I rarely get more than a glimpse of a Black Crowned Night Heron, I thought I would post images of them first. They were very busy flying in and out of the rookery. In this image, you can see the late afternoon sun casting its golden glow.

This Heron Rookery never ceases to amaze me with the different species that nest together in one large tree along the shoreline. I wonder have you ever tried to capture a Black Crowned Night Heron in flight? It's not like photographing a Great Blue Heron. They move much much slower than Night Herons. Night Herons fly much faster as they are not nearly as large a bird as their Great Blue Heron cousins. One never knows when you snap an image of one in flight, if it's even viable, but on this day I got very lucky.

I had trouble differentiating the leaves and tree branches from the Black Crowned Night Herons. The Great Blues stick out more as they are bigger, but the Night Herons being so small blend in. I snapped an image of a Great Blue Heron standing on a nest only to realize later that this Black Crowned Night Heron was sitting on its nest right below it.

Today there were Great Blue Herons, Black Crowned Night Herons, Cormorants and Great White Egrets flying all about the Heron Rookery, not to mention Barn Swallows and Canadian Geese. What a plethora and a pleasure to be in the company of such great species and able to photograph them. I will share Great Blue Heron images in a post soon. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We finally, as you can see from these images, had a beautiful day Sunday with blue skies and low temperatures in the 70's. It was wonderful. ENJOY!

Birding Tennessee

Let's face it. When it comes to Tennessee, I have discovered there are birding opportunities all over this state. I have visited Cross Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Old Hickory Lake, Radnor Lake, Priest Lake, and well, you get the idea. I have added many birds to my Life List of which several made me especially happy. I was most excited to photograph the Wood Duck pair and then a juvenile. Exciting! Middle Tennessee, as it is called here in the Volunteer State, has its share of lakes and rivers, not to mention parks and wildlife refuges. I wanted to share some of the images with you in a cumulative view. Many of these photos were featured in a post so I hope you don't mind indulging me. Just look at the variety and tell me it is not impressive! Could this be why every time I go out with my camera, my 'photo' elbow pain kicks back in.

The breakdown top to bottom, left to right. Great Blue Heron, Mallard Duck, Bufflehead Duck, Great White Egret, Yellow Crowned Night Heron, Ringed Neck Duck, Black Crowned Night Heron, Eastern Phoebe, Common Loon, Pied-Billed Grebe, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, Osprey (I think), Eastern Kingbird, Seagull, Long Tailed Duck, Wood Duck Juvenile, Eastern Bluebird, Red Winged Blackbird, Great White Egret, Wood Duck Pair, North American Wild Turkey, American Coot, Hooded Merganser and finally a Common Grackle.

It wasn't my intention to photograph birds when I started this blog. At that time I was actually into more landscapes and such. Several years later I purchase my first and a year later my second zoom lenses and off I went to photograph birds. Birds taking flight, birds landing, birds feeding, birds in the water, birds in a flock, bird eggs, bird nests, baby birds. Again, you get the idea. I hope you enjoyed the look back over my last year here in Greater Nashville. To think I only became a permanent resident here this week last year really seems to boggle my mind. And the areas I have visited to photograph nature in any shape or form has really helped me to feel more at home. It has been a year to remember for me in so many ways. ENJOY!

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday

Lighthouse, Chincoteague NWR

There's beauty everywhere on the island which plays host to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. There's Egrets and Herons and Chincoteague Ponies. There's beautiful beaches with creamy white sand. There's emerald green lagoons filled with huge wading birds. There's azure blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean surrounding you.

And then . . . there's this beautiful lighthouse. This lighthouse with its red and white stripes. This lighthouse that braves Fall's fierce hurricanes, Winter's blustery storms, Summers heat and humidity, and then revels in Spring's balmy days. With its new coat of paint the Lighthouse on Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge stands in testament that time really does stand still. And everyone on Chincoteague couldn't be happier as they marvel in its new found beauty.

I didn't want to photograph the lighthouse up close, but rather off in the distance with perhaps the bay in the foreground. And what was so unexpected were the beautiful subjects in the foreground. The Egrets and shore birds were busily searching for dinner as I captured this image. Priceless to me. ENJOY!