All the little ponds here along the coast are frozen solid, mostly. Each has at least some open water and that’s where all the birds are congregating. Fletcher Lake between Ocean Grove and Bradley Beach had this Great Blue Heron (who looks scarily hungry for some Mallard flesh!), many Mallards, a couple white domestic ducks, a Pintail(!!!), a Wigeon and a Black-crowned night heron sleeping along the shoreline.
A couple blocks away in Spring Lake we found a single Snow Goose feeding on the postcard-sized lawn of a beach house with a small group of Canada Geese.
Strange.
I find myself inclined to worry about wildlife when everything is frozen and snow-covered, but remind myself that wild things are good at surviving. They do much better than I ever could, for sure…
Hey Laura..nice photos. I really like the crossbill shot. Sorry to leave comments so infrequently but the blogger comment box rarely shows the security word, on my computer. It took a dozen tries this morning before it finally displayed the word.
I love this shot, but you are right, the heron is scary. The ducks look like they are trying to be invisible.
Hi Greg! Yeah, blogger’s a pain…
Hi Sandy! He seriously looked like he was eyeing them up for a meal.