“Anita! What them boys up to…”

My sister didn’t have to work today, and she was willing to join me this morning, so we headed first to the Broad Brook Reservoir, were we’ve seen great sights before. The sky was clear, the air was still, and the temps were in the 30s, so the steam fog coming off the surface was thick. Not so thick, happily, that we couldn’t see the large flock of ruddy ducks out on the water. Even better, some eventually drifted close enough, and the fog thinned a bit for me to take this photograph, which is just clear enough for a positive ID. “Thanks, Buddy!”

In addition to the ruddy ducks, there were mute swans, Canada geese, mallards, ring-necked ducks, great blue herons, and even a bald eagle, but I figure we’ve seen enough of them that you don’t need more foggy pictures. Instead, here’s a great egret, which we haven’t seen in a while, who was kind enough to fly in so that it’s not obscured by fog, just a few sticks in the foreground.

Just as we were about to leave, a double-crested cormorant hopped up onto a stump to dry off and even lined up with the faint reflected glow of some sunlit fall foliage on the far shore.

Then we headed over to Hannover Pond, where we’ve also seen some great sights, and this time the bald eagle parked nice and close, even if there were some branches in the way.

There were also some wood ducks, a bunch of ring-billed gulls, a pied-billed grebe, and the first American coots my sister has ever seen. Sweet!

We eventually had to wrap up our outing, but when I got back to my folks’ place, the day was just getting nicer, so I stayed out for one more look around. I don’t often get to see turkey vultures perched, so I was thrilled when this majestic creature let me sneak a picture through the foliage.

Finally, I could hear bluebirds, and at first, I found only one, but then I found four more in the top of a nearby maple tree, and these two seemed to be fascinated by an old nest, perhaps the one from which they recently fledged.

In this scene, however, where the bird facing to the left and glancing our way is straddling the head of a second bird facing to the right, your guess about what they might be up to is as good as mine. The lighting wasn’t great, and I cleaned up the image as much as I dared, so if you can’t quite make out what I’m describing, give it a click so you can see the full-resolution version on flicker and zoom in. Maybe they are two brothers getting in one last wrestle, for old times’ sake, before they abandon the nest for good and fly south.

My nephew is getting married late this afternoon, so I can’t make any promises about tomorrow morning, but if I do see something pretty or interesting, I’ll send it your way.