Lifers

Yesterday, the family and I went to Jester Park, which is near Saylorville lake. While my siblings went to play on the playground, me and mom went up to the lake, and we saw some awesome birds. The first thing we noticed was there were a bunch of white birds sitting on the lake. And by a bunch, I mean thousands. I took some pictures and figured out they were Snow and Ross's Geese. Then they took to the air, and it sounded like thunder! They would just fly back and forth for a bit, then settle down into the water again.

The middle right goose is possibly a Ross's.

There was also a flock of Canada Geese, which I took pictures of, but upon further inspection of the pictures, it turns out there were a couple of Greater White-fronted Geese mixed in!

Canada Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese.

There were some Northern Pintails flying around also, and some Mallards foraging in a large puddle.

Northern Pintails.

Mallards.

We also went to the visitors center, where they have a bunch of bird feeders in the winter. While we were looking there, I spotted this cutie!

Adorable Tufted Titmouse!

Swans

So, a couple days ago, at Saylorville lake, I got my first Trumpeter Swans! We saw them because of mom's friend who told us there were a dozen or so at the lake. So we went to look around, and when we did see them, there were quite a few flying with some Canada Geese! After they flew around for a while, they went to go sleep in the snow on the lake. That couldn't have been too comfortable. After we watched them sleep for a bit, mom decided to go look by a little river nearby. I couldn't see anything at first, just a lot of geese. There was a steep bank that led down to the river, and it turns out that a pair were hiding right next to the bank, just enough that we couldn't see them. But I got out of the car, and they started to swim away so I got some nice close pictures.

Flying swans.

Adults with some grayish younger ones.

The pair swimming away.

The white ones are swans.