Grackle In The Surf

photograph of a Grackle in the surf in Corolla, NC, USA, copyright 2016 by Doug Couvillion

This Grackle seems to have learned a few things from the Sanderlings on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.  It waited for the waves to bring tiny mollusks and crustaceans into the shore and then tried to catch them before they dug into the sand.  I captured this image just as the Grackle realized the wave was a little too big.

Young Hawk Watching The River

photograph of a young hawk perched in a tree on the Rappahannock River in Virginia

This young hawk, perched high above the Rappahannock River was carefully watching everything going on below it.

I’ve had trouble identifying this hawk. I believe it’s a juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk but if anybody knows differently I would appreciate your thoughts.

Storm Gathering Over The Rappahannock

HDR photograph of storm clouds gathering over the Rappahannock River in Virginia

My friends I and were on a multiday canoe trip on the Rappahannock River in July.  One evening we rounded a bend in the river to see massive storm clouds building down river.  Fortunately the storm took an alternate course and we were spared scrambling ashore to wait it out.

 

 

Eastern River Cooter

Photograph of an Eastern River Cooter on the Rappahannock River in Virginia

This small Eastern River Cooter was basking on a sunny log in the Rappahannock River as a paddled my canoe past it last July.  I don’t know much about the turtles of Virginia so I may have misidentified this one.