an evening outing

post#102 
      We live near a lake built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1968.  Occasionally we manage to get out on the lake in the early evening, with my camera, in our small boat with a quiet trolling motor.  Sometimes we see a lot of birds, maybe a beaver, some deer, and a few Canada geese.  We usually always see kingfishers and at least one blue heron. The quiet is always wonderful in that beautiful place.
      Monday night it was just a blue heron in flight and nothing else, except one other boat -- until we spotted a green heron, who turned out to be pretty unconcerned about us. 
      I promised at the end of last week's post to have mostly photos this week, so here are enough to tell the story of our evening.  It is a happiness to make photos while on the lake, even if conditions rarely allow for perfect photos.  I thank my husband for making these outings possible -- he is our boat guru.

various cliff views, all along the way

We saw a black hornet come out of the "eye" of its nest high on a cliffside.

       Now for the green heron, which is smaller than the blue, and which typically creeps along the edge of the water, looking for food.  My husband saw this before I did.  I was sure it was going to fly away, so I took the first photo in a rush -- the heron blends in pretty well.  However, it didn't go away!  The next two photos show it almost posing for us as we came quietly closer and closer. 

A lovely log was really lying in grass this green.

Much to my regret, only the cardinal flower is in focus in this photo,

yet this dead tree is wonderfully in focus.  Go figure.  Our boat is usually in motion.

Finally, this blue heron greeted us as we returned to the launching area.

             
        Here's to celebrating our natural world.  I hope you can feel some of the peace we experienced.