Another Cold Morning by the Sea

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Saturday morning I spent a couple of hours at Baytown Nature Center. For most of my time there the weather was miserably cold and gray, the kind of conditions that make photography difficult and that keep most sensible birds hunkered down out of sight.

Surprisingly, the birds that appeared in the largest numbers were Hooded Mergansers. I saw a total of 18 males and females.

One group of Mergansers was accompanied by a Common Goldeneye.

Several Blue-winged Teal, some Gadwalls and a Common Loon were all too distant for photos but one of two Horned Grebes came a little nearer to the shore.

Belted Kingfishers spook easily and I only got one mediocre photo of one of three Kingfishers I passed on my walk.

I was too slow to photograph two Northern Harriers that were out hunting. However, a third posed for a moment on a tree not too far from the path.

The weather brightened up as I was leaving and I stopped to admire a Snowy Egret that was pacing around in one of the ponds.

A Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron were hanging out at the edge of the same pond.

As my two hours of birding hadn't been too successful, I decided to head over to the Thompson Bait Camp to see if I could spot any of the interesting gulls that had been reported from there.
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