One From the Files

The weather has not been camera friendly the last few times I've ventured out for a walk or a paddle.  As a result, I have very few current pictures to share.  What I do have are some shots from this past summer and fall that I can share.  So let me reach into the files and pull out a few I think you might like.  (And a note to those of you who are on my friends list on Facebook...you've seen these pictures.)

Way back in April, when I was still relatively newly retired, we spent a great deal of time out and about hiking and paddling.  In an effort to expand our knowledge of local waters, we struck out into nearby counties to see what they had to offer in the way of navigable streams.  We revisited a creek we had paddled briefly on a VERY windy day about two years ago.  It is called Dillard Creek. It is in Chowan County and empties into the Chowan River.  The river is pretty wide where the creek flows into it - probably about 1.5 to 1.75 miles across.  We paddled a short distance out into the river to take a look around.  I won't bore you with a whole slew of pictures, but I think you might find the following at least mildly interesting:

 

Take a look at the tree to your left.  Yeah, the taller one.  See anything out of the ordinary?

Okay, how about now?  Way up there near the top where the tree starts to lean off to the left. Could that be an osprey nest?  No, wait, that's a live tree and ospreys are partial to dead trees.  Eagles build in live trees but that nest isn't nearly large enough.  Hmmm...maybe a closer look is in order.

Well now, that's a surprise.  It's a Canada Goose!  I have seen many a goose nest in my life, but this was a first.  Never have I seen a goose nesting so high in a tree.  Prior to this, the highest I had ever seen a nest was about six feet off the water in an old cypress stump.

  Wonder what the goslings thought about that first step into the wild blue?