Muskrat Love (I Think)

 As I was finishing taking pictures of the swans, I saw this guy swimming by.

I thought that perhaps it was a beaver as there have been beaver sightings on Belle Isle.  Upon further inspection, it looks like a muskrat.  Oh well, still pretty cool.

Amongst Creatures Most Fowl

 After taking a picture of a train at Durand, I headed up to Shiawassee.  I arrived there around 5:00P.M.  It seems like if you want to take pictures of birds, you either need to get somewhere early in the morning or late in the afternoon.  Birds tend to not do much in the afternoon.

As I made the first turn onto the nature drive, I saw what appeared to be an odd bird.  when I got closer, I realized it was a cormorant taking a break.

His beak still looked too short for a cormorant though.  But still kind of cool.  I don't usually get pictures of these guys so close.

The flock of pelicans was close enough that I could get a picture of it.

This pelican was off to the side.

He was fairly cooperative for me.

Even flexed his wings a couple of times.

Of course he was looking around.

I kind of like this shot.

A proud bird.

Not sure what kind of bird this was but he had dinner.

A muskrat swimming by.

An egret posing for me.

One of my terns going by.

A pair of sandhill cranes.

Another egret.

The same pair of sandhill cranes.

Just a sandhill crane before taking off and making a racket.

A yellow finch.

Another egret.

A cormorant in flight.

A cormorant in flight and making a ruckus.

I think this is a trumpeter swan.

Another angle of him.

And the eagle was back.

He was pretty far out, so these pictures are pretty heavily cropped.

For the most part they worked.

Looking around.

Looking towards me.

Another one.

 And we end with a pelican just swimming around.

Watching an Eagle Get Breakfast

After catching the 757, I headed down to Magee.  Like I said, I wanted to be there early enough to see the eagles when they were the most active.

 The first thing I was a rabbit.  I wanted to try to get closer to it....

 ...but alas.

 It was cool to see the eagle out, but unfortunately he wasn't in the best position for pictures.

 "Hey, quit paying attention to those eagles over there...I'm a much nicer looking bird."

 Another shot of the eagle.  It was almost like he was drinking his coffee and reading his newspaper before going out "shopping".

 I think this is a muskrat.

 The eagle finally left the tree to look for breakfast.  I wasn't able to get a decent shot of him leaving, but since I was looking in the right direction, I was able to get a pretty cool shot of him coming back.

 The eagle was getting molested by the other birds as it was bringing the fish back to the nest.

 "Flaps set.  Gear down.  Clearance to land."

 I think there were three eagles in the nest, but the other one was staying hidden.

 He looks out over his domain.

 I'm not sure what he was looking down at.

 I think this was a heron.

 I would have liked the shot better if he were in the water.

 But I really like this shot.

Magee has two eagle nests.  I was beginning to think that this nest was abandoned and then I saw this young eagle peek out.