Another blog post for the birds!

Marsha and I went bird watching again yesterday. We got to see some great birds. We went to a place in Morrison, Illinois called Rockwood State Park. We're blessed to have many great state parks around us, within an hour or so drive from home. There's a lake at Rockwood and we sort of centered most of our watching around it.

The first bird we spotted was a Belted Kingfisher. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a photo of it, it had flown right in front of the car as we drove in. But it was great to see one anyway.

Marsha tried to see if she could find the Kingfisher again but didn't have much luck...



I was thrilled to add two brand new birds to my Life List. One was a Double-Crested Cormorant. It's a diving bird that looks like it's body is sunk in the water when it's swimming and it's head sticks up like the periscope on a submarine! Marsha had seen cormorants before was was happy to see it again.

It was at first up in a tree with a mate. I didn't even know the mate was there until I looked at the photos I had snapped on my computer at home. This is the first view of the cormorant. We were about to leave when we spotted this one up in a tree. It was pretty far away, so we couldn't tell what it was.



We went around the lake to get a better view. I snapped more photos. See if you can spot both of them! I was shooting with bright sunlight and it was difficult to adjust to get rid of the glare. They were all the way across this lake and very tough to see with my own eyes due to the bright sun glare. So I was just pointing and shooting, hoping to capture SOMETHING! I'll post a version of this photo with the birds circled at the bottom of this post so you can see if you can find them first. Not too tough!



Here's a closer shot of the cormorant, he was not too far from me in this shot, close enough to identify correctly. He was diving and fishing so his characteristic double crest was all wet and matted down. But you can clearly see his orange facial marks.



The second new bird to my Life List was either an Eastern Phoebe or a Northern Rough-Winged Swallow. I'm leaning toward the swallow due to her coloring, but a couple of people on a bird forum I frequent think it's a Phoebe and they are probably a lot more knowledgeable than we are. Either one would be new to Marsha and me tho!



There were Purple Martin houses all around the lake, so we saw a lot of them. I only got a few shots of the one flying high, so they didn't show up very well. but again, enough to identify the birds.



I love Canada Geese. There's something beautiful and yet goofy about them. They were all around the lake too. And they were very willing subjects, getting right up close and personal. Most likely they were wanting to bite my butt. But they don't scare me...not at all. Altho there was a straw cowboy hat lying in their area that had us wondering. We were a bit worried about where the cowboy was!

Mama (she has the whiter underneath feathers...behind a couple of the others) with a few of her braver "babies" coming to check me out...



They're such pretty birds...



The young ones were having such fun cavorting and diving and flapping...



The geese took their leave in lines of family groups...



It was time for us to go too. We had a great time and another successful bird-watching trip.

Here is the picture I promised of the two birds, I'm sure you could find them, but just in case not...



P.S. My new zoom lens should be here today, in fact I'm writing this post while waiting for the UPS man to show up. So, hopefully my shots will be a little clearer and crisper once I get the hang of using it!

Disclaimer: Many of my shots are just so I can try to I.D. the birds, I mean, I'm not taking them to the fair or anything!! Just sayin'...