Recent Visitors and Old Friends

Since I haven't kept y'all updated about the happenings on Springwoods Lake and I don't feel like trying to rehash the last few months in my head, I'm just going to post some photos and my random comments.  I'm open to second (which are usually better) opinions on any identifications that I claim here.  The photos are taken at a pretty high optical and digital zoom, then many of them are further "blown up".  I'm not trying to collect points for artistic style, and I apologize for the pretty crappy photos.  Except for the very last one...I offer no apologies for that one cause I like it! 

Back in October I was trying to identify some divers on the lake and I thought they might be Pied-billed Grebes.  After watching them for a couple-a-few weeks I decided that they were not.  I begin to think they might be juvenile Hooded Mergansers.  But then I wasn't so sure.  It was very frustrating until I realized that I was looking at two different flocks.

I'm claiming Grebes on these guys:

and Mergansers on these:

Speaking of Hooded Mergansers, I woke up one morning to these visitors.  Beautiful!

I watched this guy for a while through my binocs, and I recall deciding that he was a Double-Crested Cormorant.  But, I would not attest to that now.  The photo certainly is not suggestive of anything to my untrained eye.  It had a reddish throat that made me think it might be an Anhinga, but the tip of its bill seemed to be slightly hooked.  It's a shame he was so far away.

Now, Anhingas and Cormorants...  Anyone have any thoughts on these guys?

They don't have the sharp bills of the Anahingas, but I thought Cormorants sat higher in the water than this.  Here's a shot from this morning, I think these are the same guys.

I think this must be a Bald Eagle.  It was huge and soaring high, and I don't know what else it might be.

I love the Belted Kingfishers.  I don't see them up close quite as often now that the water levels are back up, but I heard them a lot.

Okay, I'm a little tired of adding random pictures and trying to be clever enough to come up with something to say.  And who wants to look at a photo without a proper lead-in and caption?  So, I'll sign off here, but before I do, I want to leave you with these little guys because they make me smile: