Fall Colors On Fire (White House: deal, pictures, windows)

[mbmouse]

Several weeks ago Hubby and I were walking the Greenbelt in Kingsport and saw these cool bird/duck creatures and not sure what they are. I looked them up in my bird book and we THINK we know what they are, but would love to have others opinions and I thought seeing as LauraC had such a great shot of the heron here, this would be a good place to post it. Hope you don't mind me adding more pictures to your thread LauraC.
It was dusk at the time we saw these things. In the water, they looked like skinny ducks then they flew up into the trees, there were bunches of them. In the trees they looked like some kind of heron.



I lightened this one up on the computer so you can see them better. They were far away and as my camera doesn't zoom all that far.


So anyone know for sure what these birds/ducks are?

[kamoshika]

mbmouse, I'm pretty sure those guys are double-crested cormorants.

[gemkeeper]

Beautiful shots, mbmouse. A fantastic time of day to get some interesting photos. Thanks.

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by kamoshika

mbmouse, I'm pretty sure those guys are double-crested cormorants.

Thanks kamoshika! As I said we looked in my bird book and we came up with cormoarants as the best match too, but your are just never sure until you have a more qualified opinion. I appreciate you.

[LauraC]

That's it! I'm going to buy bird and tree books. I need to know what I'm seeing. I've seen about 6 different duck types, too, and none are the yellow ones I'm familiar...and none look like Daffy.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by jmarkey

Boy, do I miss going walking there. Thanks so much for the gorgeous pictures!

I meant to tell you this -- when you are heading toward Norris from Oak Ridge, do you know that stretch of 61 in Clinton where those big homes with woods are on your right? (It's closer to Oak Ridge than Norris if that helps you pinpoint it in Clinton.)

Well, on Saturday they had the Christmas decorations on the poles over there and they must be light sensitive because it was a dark grey day and the lights (snowflakes, Christmas tree, etc.) were on around 2PM. The funniest thing was behind one of them was this beautiful tree with orange-reddish leaves. It was like a collision of seasons due to a late Fall and a penchant to Christmas decorate early.

We've got the same decorations on poles in Oak Ridge on 62 but they weren't lit midday llike the ones in Clinton.

[jmarkey]

I saw something in the same vein around here. Someone has a nativity scene in their front yard and after a blustery day, the baby Jesus was pretty much buried in red and yellow leaves. It was just wrong on so many levels. Maybe it was a sign that it's just too soon to put the little fella out there.

Thanks for the great pictures of Melton Lake. I love the heron. I tried to take a genuine close up of him one day, rather than use the zoom. It was probably not a good idea while I had the dog with me. He snaked his head down to dog level and the one eye I could see looked pretty evil.

I love looking at your wonderful pictures of sights along the walkway. Thanks for posting them.

[mbmouse]

A few posts back I was fussing about not being able to get two pictures to download out of the camera and into the computer that I took in October on the Kingsport Greenbelt. Well Hubby took the Sim card to work where they have a reader and they downloaded just fine! I am so happy about it. Still kinda ticket that they won't download the normal way without a bunch of pink or blueish streaks through them without the reader, but really glad he got them and I just had to share! These were taken on the shore line rather near to the place I took the pictures of the cormorant's up in the tree.

[kamoshika]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

A few posts back I was fussing about not being able to get two pictures to download out of the camera and into the computer that I took in October on the Kingsport Greenbelt. Well Hubby took the Sim card to work where they have a reader and they downloaded just fine! I am so happy about it.

Wow, super shots! I'm glad your wait to retrieve those had such a beautiful payoff.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

Sometimes I loose some really nice pictures due to the car moving or sun glare off the windshield....see. !

See, the first time I saw glare from a bus window in a photo, I thought I had a UFO until I realized it was the reflection of the light from the open set of bus windows behind me on the bus windows in front of me. You just need to tell people you captured the movement of apparitions or spirits so they appreciate the weird light or the blur (especially around that little Tennessee White House).