Bone Creek

This morning I took a ride out to Bone Creek reservoir which is about 20 miles northeast from our home as the crow flies. The past couple of days have been gray here, the sun was up this morning so I packed some coffee, my Peterson field guide, my binoculars and my camera, along with some extra batteries. Bone Creek is one of my favorite fishing spots almost year round. As I arrived at the lake I met a group of four fishermen out already in the cold with lines in the water. A young man with two young boys and an older man with gray hair. I assumed three generations of fisherman. After a hullo I asked, "Any luck?" The Dad smiled and looked at his two sons who appeared to be around 9 and 10 and said "nope but it keeps them from nagging me to get out here" His Dad laughed.

I hiked along the shore for a while, spooking up geese and mallards. The brilliant green heads of the drake mallards flashed as they took off. They are easy to spot with the sun behind you. The water along the shore had a really thin layer of ice that formed some interesting shapes.
This right half of this one reminded me of a deer skull. I believe the circles are air bubbles trapped in or under this thin veneer of ice.

This one was just plain cool, I was sprawled out in the frozen mud and rocks for at least five minutes taking photos of this one and others. I would have taken more but my batteries gave out and the reality of the cold ground was starting to sink in.
Bone Creek is around 540 acres and at this time of year there is some ice and mostly open water. It has attracted many different kinds of waterfowl but I had to watch them through my binoculars as most were way over in the back side of the lake in standing timber. I spotted a mature bald eagle sitting in a tree right above them. So I hiked back to my car changed batteries and headed around the lake to see if I could get closer to the action.
I hiked down to the shore, searched the lake with my binoculars and was treated to a sight. Two immature bald eagles were circling over the waterfowl out in the submerged timber. The mature eagle was still there watching from its perch above the action below. I figure there was at least 1000 ducks and geese out there. The ducks would almost run along the ice and open water in tight groups avoiding the eagles whenever they approached. The geese moved less but were much more vocal. Of course this was all out of camera range, even with the binoculars I had difficulty identifying the ducks. I saw Mallards, Golden Eyes, Pintails, Mergansers of some kind and others.
I headed back to the car, the coffee was just about warm, it was almost noon. I headed home
feeling like I had some good photos but as for watching the eagles, sometimes the best pictures aren't taken, they are experienced.