Lunch with Connie Jo

I found myself sitting in a doctor's office Friday morning, a bit depressed over things that were happening when I got a message from my girlfriend, Connie Jo!  She was inviting me to go to lunch and maybe do some birding with her.  That lifted my spirits and told her "Yes"....She picked me up and we headed to Laurelville for lunch at the Ridge Inn Restaurant.  Was a new place for me and Connie surprised me with dessert first!  They make these really large and delicious doughnuts there.  After lunch we headed to Hocking Hills.  Was a nice drive and no birds.....I suggested Lake Logan.  My sister and I had been there years ago and saw our first Kingfisher, among other things.  We finally got there and the first thing we see is the Swans.

They came over to see if we were going to feed them and when we didn't they proceeded to take baths.  Was fun watching how they roll around in the water to get water on their backs.  There were other wonderful things to see after we sat there and looked around...

We watched this Blue Heron walk out into the middle of the water.  

There were a couple of Hooded Merganser.

I think they are so pretty.  They were just lazin' around to.  There was also another couple of ducks, which I am not too sure what their name is....

 I have on good authority that this duck is a Gadwall.
Which is a new one for me.

Then Connie saw this bird fly by and land in the tree across the little pond area...

We hunted the trees until we found him....

There he was in the tree to the left of the power tower.

It was a  Belted Kingfisher!  He was beautiful and while we were watching him, he dove into the water and came back up....

and landed....

It looks like he caught something and he sat there until he had swallowed it and flew back into the tree.  We were so thrilled to have witness him getting his food.  Well this even excited the Heron, who immediately turned around and walked over to where he was.

We drove down to the end to turn around when something caught my eye.....It was the female Belted Kingfisher.....

She is prettier than the male...She has this red belt that the male doesn't have.  We watched her for a while and she flew off...

This small area had a lot of wild life.  It is the opposite end of the lake away from the dam.  A small road with water on both sides..in the picture below the lake is in the background...

After taking this....something else fly by....We are scanning the trees with our binoculars and finally found him.....

A big Hawk...He blended in that it was hard finding him...but he found us...looks like he was watching us....LOL....  I just found out that this is a young Red-shouldered Hawk. (Thanks Kyle)

Then Connie asked me if I had noticed that white thing sticking up in the water?  Well it looked like a morning glory...which didn't make much sense...so I took pictures...to view it on my computer later to see what it was.......well.....

It is one of those mysteries of nature.  Yes! Connie and I had stumbled upon......the strange and wonderful.............

Yes, a Stick in the mud faking out people like us!!!!!  LOL....  This was better than the plastic bag tree bird!  LOL

Just before we turned out to head home...we saw these cute turtles sunning themselves....

Who said tires couldn't have a second life!!!!!

We really enjoyed our visit and saw all of this from the car.  Life is good!

Well on our way home, we took the wrong rode and while we were looking for a place to turn around we saw this Red-tailed Hawk in the field....

She was having lunch.    We drove on and found a place to turn around in and headed back and in the same field....

A Turkey Vulture!  This was my first one of the spring season....This Vulture must have been cleaning up after the Hawk's meal.....

We also saw  lots of Crows ....but when you stop they fly away.....up into the trees....

We had such a great day.  My depressed mood was gone.  We are talking and all of a sudden I see this huge nest in a tree!

Do you see it there?  I knew something that big had to be an Eagle nest....we turned around...

came back and stopped....

 There sat the  Eagle  ..I think this is her back end.  I think this is a new nest.  It isn't as big as others I have seen.  It still was thrilling to find.

 A great way to end our birding outing.  Connie Jo and I were both in great spirits when we returned home.  We look forward to many more adventures..... (hopefully I can share with you, my readers)

Till the next adventure!!!!!! ;)