2014 Year of Wildlife

As I perused my archives this morning, I was reminded of all of the photo opportunities I encountered throughout 2014 beginning with the prolific Winter earlier in the year to the beautiful foliage of this past Fall season. Come along as I journey back on this New Year's Day.

Row One:

Female Elk, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Redhead Ducks, Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area, Indiana

Sandhill Cranes, Ewing Bottoms, Indiana

River Otter, Mustatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, Indiana

Row Two:

Whooping Cranes, Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area, Indiana

Female Scarlet Tanager, Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest, Kentucky

Canadian Geese, Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest, Kentucky

Deer, Prospect, Kentucky

Row Three:

Pied Bill Grebe, Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area, Indiana

Great Blue Heron, Lexington Reservoir, Kentucky

Cardinal, Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest, Kentucky

Deer, Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Kentucky

Row Four:

White Pelicans, Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area, Indiana

Northern Shoveler, Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area, Indiana

Barn Swallow, Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest, Kentucky

Mare and Colt, Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Kentucky

What a fantastic year! Journeys throughout my home state of Kentucky and into Indiana and Tennessee. This year found me photographing those beautiful White Pelicans at Goose Pond, not to mention those cute River Otters at Mustatatuck. And I can't fail to mention my journey to the beautiful state of Michigan, where I visited many of its charming beach towns along Lake Michigan and explored in and around Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I sincerely hope you had a great New Year's Eve and that you are not sporting a hangover today. Let us raise our cameras into the air and begin to photograph a new year filled with promise and possibilities. I can't wait. Happy New Year. ENJOY!

Linking to City Daily Photo
Linking to Rattlebridge Farm
Linking to Eileen's Saturday Critters
Linking to Mosaic Monday

Pelican Brief

A few more images from my trip to Goose Pond a few Sundays past to photograph the American White Pelicans.

Such huge birds with odd shaped bodies and large noses on their beaks. Also quite interesting to watch them socializing with each other and flying in and out of groupings.

These birds will fly to the upper Midwest and parts in southern Canada to nest and breed.

As the winter takes over, the birds will fly to coastlines along the southern United States as well as Central and Southern American coasts. Earlier this week one naturialist counted one thousand Pelicans still stopped over at Goose Pond. Would love to go back on a warm day and take some images.

A new Nikon D5100 arrived last week. Yippee! I think my future holds a higher end Nikon, but for now I'm sticking with the D5100.

Spring has arrived in the Bluegrass State with a balmy 80 degrees today! Magnolias are blooming in Bernheim and with some luck perhaps I can get some images this weekend. We have three days of rain coming this week. I know Spring hasn't taken a foothold in the mountains out West or here in the Eastern Appalachians. And some folks tell me snow is still an every day occurrence in Canada, so perhaps we should be consulting the weather Gods to help remedy this situation. ENJOY!

Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area, Linton, Indiana

For quite some time I've wanted to visit Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area south of Linton, in central Indiana. Mind you this is a long, long drive from Louisville for a day trip. However, the weather forecast today looked promising so I headed out. As I approached the marshes at Goose Pond, the Great Blue Herons were visible everywhere and quite a few close to the road.

As you drive through the main portion of Goose Pond, you'll find a huge marsh with Route 59 running north and south right through the middle of it. There's a second marsh area northeast of Goose Pond called Beehunter's Marsh which I visited, but didn't see many species of birds on this visit. The water was a gorgeous blue today. The perfect day to explore the entire area.

I encountered this Great Blue Heron intently keeping an eagle eye out for a meal. I didn't get the impression I even warranted a glance from him. At times as I found Herons standing a little closer to Route 59, if I stopped my car to snap an image they would fly away squawking. I wasn't even close to them. A little different behavior from what I'm used to at Mustatatuck.

The marshes at Goose Pond are five times the size of Mustatatuck. One important note here, Goose Pond is in the direct path of one of North America's migratory flyways called the Mississippi Migratory Flyway. Generally, birds fly through in Fall from Yukon, Alaska and southern Ontario, flying through Michigan and Ohio and directly over Goose Pond in Indiana. So this fish and wildlife area is a major stopover for the migratory birds on their way to the Mississippi River. From there they continue flying south to the Gulf of Mexico, where they make their way east or west along the coast to overwinter in southern Florida or the Texas coast or parts further south.

I wanted you to see the flyways on a map which I pulled off of www.birdnature.com's website. There are many websites that offer information on the flyway if you Google it. I can't wait to go back to Goose Pond when the migratory birds are making their Fall pilgrimage. Perhaps a two day trip would be in order as I've read the many different types of birds and the sheer numbers of each species is huge at that time. Hope your weekend was great. ENJOY!