This Morning at Lake Paradise

A Lesser Yellowlegs with reflections on the lake

Lake Paradise is one of the little park lakes here in The Villages, Florida.  It is home to a variety of birds big and small.  The level of the lake is way down now.  We are in a drought.  This is a man-made lake and depends on rainfall for its water.

I spotted the Belted Kingfisher again.  I have photographed the bird several different times.  I also saw a pair of Canada Geese browsing up in the park near the shoreline.  There were about a hundred small shorebirds and Seagulls.  The shorebirds likely were some type of plovers and Lesser Yellowlegs.  I also saw a lone Snowy Egret and a lone Great Blue Heron.  The sad fact is that those shorebirds were wading in what should be the middle of the lake in mere inches of water.

Not many ducks at all this morning.  I took the pictures at about 8:00am.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

Low water levels!

Canada Geese

Belted Kingfisher

 

 

 

Lesser Yellowlegs

Belted Kingfisher

Shorebirds (probably Plovers)

Pelicans, Kingfisher, Geese, & Duck

A Belted Kingfisher, White Pelicans, Sea Gulls, Muscovy Ducks, and Canada Geese were all spotted on Lake Paradise in The Villages, FL,  on January 7, 2017.  This little neighborhood lake has a few more inches of water in it since we got a good soaking rain yesterday and the night before last.  I am so very glad!  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds at Paradise Lake, The Villages, FL

White Pelicans

Ring-necked Ducks

Osprey

 

 

 

 

White Pelicans, Wood Storks, Great Blue Herons, Osprey, Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded Merganser Ducks, Great Egrets, a Belted Kingfisher, Sandhill Cranes, and a Red-tailed Hawk were all spotted on our neighborhood park lake within the past two weeks.  It was amazing!  I so enjoy bird watching and it was really fun to see so many different birds here at once.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of that photo.  Enjoy!

Red-tailed Hawk in Flight

Canada Geese

 

 

Belted Kingfisher

Great Blue Heron

Great Egrets

Paradise Park Lake, The Villages, FL

 

Here are a bunch of pictures of various water birds that I photographed last night at twilight at the lovely little Lake Paradise from the shoreline of Paradise Park in The Villages, FL.

I enjoyed my vacation.  I was in California visiting my family and attending a wedding.  I did not take many pictures at all on the trip.  We thankfully just missed all the terrible floods in Louisiana by only 2 days!  We actually drove through areas that just days later, were under water.  I hope you will remember the communities in Louisiana who have suffered the floods in your thoughts and prayers.

Happily I saw a new family of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks there at Lake Paradise along with many Canada Geese, White Ibis, Mallards and Florida Mottled Ducks.  There also were a few Anhingas, and a Snowy Egret.

I did miss seeing all of the big birds on my trip.  I did see a California Sea-lion, a Jack Rabbit, and a flock of wild “Freeway chickens” on Highway 99 up in Northern California above Sacramento.  All in all, a great trip!

Wordless Wednesday: Wading Birds & Waterfowl

Little Blue Heron

Tri-colored Heron

Great Blue Heron

I took these pictures this past Saturday  during the early evening, at little Paradise Lake in The Villages, Florida.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger picture.  Enjoy!

Canada Goose

Florida Mottled Duck

Egyptian Goose

Waterfowl Taking Advantage of the Bird Feeder!

The geese are so smart that they have learned to bump the bird feeder pole and get a shower of tasty seeds to fall to the ground.  Here at the little neighborhood park lake which is a residential lake as well, the waterfowl have all learned to take advantage of certain bird feeders for some extra chow!

I don’t know if the owners know the true reason for the waterfowl crowd being in their yard, but it is a interesting situation to observe.  Poor squirrels may be getting a bad rap!  Ha!  Who can say?  I do know that the Canada Geese, Florida Mottled Ducks, White Ibis, Double Crested Cormorants, and the Egyptian Geese sure love pecking up the bits of bird food scattered around the shoreline backyard!  I took these pictures this last weekend.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger picture.  Enjoy!

 

Three Breeds of Geese

Canada Geese

Last night I finally got a chance to get out and do a little wildlife observation at the local park lakes.  I spotted several kinds of wading birds and also many geese and ducks.  The three types of geese I saw were:  Canada Geese, Egyptian Geese, and White Chinese Geese.  Quite international if I do say.

We had a stormy day here on Monday with the Tropical Storm “Colin”.  We were lucky in that our area did not have a lot of damage from the storm.  My neighborhood did very well in the storm.  A bonus for us is the park lakes are full.

Paradise Lake in the historic side of The Villages, has quite a few Canada Geese.  I spotted the Egyptian and Chinese Geese at the little Mira Mar lake in  the Spanish Springs area.  All of these geese primarily eat grass, aquatic plants and shore based seeds.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of that photo.  Enjoy!

Canada Geese

Canada Geese

Canada Geese

 

Chinese Geese

Chinese Geese

Egyptian Geese