Hoover Reservoir Spillway Wood Duck

I've updoaded this image at 2000 pixels wide.  Click for a much larger image. 

Yesterday afternoon, I zipped down to the spillway below Hoover Reservoir.  You're looking at the drinking water for a major chunk of the Columbus area.  It also happens to be a place where waterfowl gather when much of the reservoir is frozen.  While yesterday's temps reached above freezing, we've had a fairly good stretch of subzero temperatures.

This drake wood duck stole the show yesterday.  It is just a simply stunning bird. This by far is the best look at one I've ever had, and it's simply beautiful.  Wood ducks are quite wary, and as this one approached, it had its eye on me the whole time.

The platform above the spillway is becoming such a popular and busy place, for both birdwatchers and fitness enthusiasts who climb the dam's long stretch of concrete stairs, that the ducks seem even less wary of people.  So, if you've never gone to Hoover, I urge you to, it's a great place to see waterfowl relatively closeup.

-Tom

New Purpose; At Least for Now

So, I know I wrote the post-mortem for this space, but maybe there's a little heart beat left.  After writing that post-mortem, I decided to systematically organize every natural history image I've photographed at my Smugmug website - tomarbour.smugmug.com.  Doing that has made me aware of species that I have yet to photograph.  And what did I decide I would do about that?  Well, photograph them!  And instead of just adding them to the gallery on Smugmug, why not share them here as well?

Today I went to Alum Creek to look for the eared grebe, and struck out.  A trip to the Oxbow Area at Hoover Nature Preserve, however, yielded three species I have not photographed, the golden-crowned Kinglet;







The Bonaparte's Gull;
   



And the Bufflehead.
   


Follow along, and let's see what else we can find in 2016.

-Tom

Veterans Day at Hoover Dam, Blendon Woods

-Tom

The Ospreys of Hoover Reservoir

There's an amazing nature viewing area in Columbus that practically nobody knows about-  the boardwalk at the top end of Hoover Reservoir near the tiny village of Galena.  It's a place where rafts of hundreds of ducks float about in the spring, and shorebirds of all kinds poke and prod muddy flats in the fall.  I went there armed with my camera only two weeks ago.  What's amazing is how the march of spring has progressed since I took these images- we're really greening up here quickly in Ohio with several days in the lower 80's.

But I digress.  I have been to Hoover boardwalk before, seeing the two Osprey nesting platforms, but no sign of Ospreys.  A few days before my visit, I read a tip posted to the Ohio Birds Listserve that a pair of ospreys had been sighted in the area, so my recent visit was to specifically to see and possibly photograph the ospreys. 

The ospreys did not dissapoint.  Although there wasn't any activity at the platform closest to the boardwalk, the platform furthest from the boardwalk to the south was flanked by two ospreys.  These birds were FAR from the boardwalk, not much more than specks when viewed with 10x binoculars.  Still, I was able to get a few shots of the birds in flight, and when I got home and examined the images on the computer screen, this osprey was carrying a gigantic fish- perhaps a large gizzard shad.

And there was some evidence that the ospreys may be building a nest on one of the platforms.  After a brief absence, they flew right over me, both carrying sticks and headed to the nest platform.

I uploaded this image at 2000 pixels.  Click for a much larger image, and see if you can find the osprey in the tree.

So that was my thirty minute adventure with the Ospreys of Hoover Reservoir, located right here in Central Ohio on property owned by the City of Columbus.  Maybe they'll lay eggs?  Maybe they already have eggs- I'll be back soon.

Tom