Nuke Plant Nature Area -- August 30th, 2011

Under the heading of "you never know what you're going to see", my surprise today was seeing over 50 Midland Painted Turtles in the pond... pretty much every log in the pond was covered with them. There were a couple of Great Egrets, a Great Blue Heron, the resident pair of Mute Swans, a few Cormorants and a few Mallards too.

The reeds made it impossible to get clear shots of some of the gatherings. I count at least 33 in this shot... including a couple heads poking through the water surface.

A pretty good balancing act...

Ma & Pa and one of the kids?

Chicory...

Locust tree seed pods.

One of the swans... and more turtles.

A Common Moorhen...

Cormorants have a way of putting their noses in the air while they're swimming.

Great Blue Heron

Cormorant lift-off

On the way home from the nuke plant I dropped by 2nd Marsh. This pair of Cormorants was in the channel and what with it being "turtle day", one was with them.

I saw about a dozen Great Blues at the marsh. As usual, some of them were sharing the raft with Cormorants.

These Great Egrets were squabbling over something. 

- fini -