BEAVERS AND OTTERS ARE HIDING

Thirty degrees!  What happened?  It was 67 degrees just three days ago.   Oh well - it's off to the river.  It is c.o.l.d. this morning.

I turned the corner where Beech Creek meets the Holston River and almost got flapped to death by a thousand fear crazed geese.

Nervous ducks took flight from everywhere.  They are moving onto the river in large numbers.  Still, the mallards and blue winged teals are the most prevalent duck on the water.

The first duck is a male mallard followed by a female mallard followed by a blue winged teal.  Note the blue on the edge of the teal's folded wing.  These are beautiful ducks and stay on the river year round.

A pair of mallards take flight.

The above little guy is a pied bill grebe.  That picture is probably the best photo I have ever taken of this species.  They are unusually shy and are very difficult to get close to.  This fellow was behind a large fallen log and didn't see me passing the log in the boat.  He just swam out into the open unafraid.  Click and got im.  He wasted no time doing his disappearing act.

The leaves should change into their Fall colors after today.  The temperatures are to go to 28 degrees tonight and that should bring on the color.
It's interesting to note that the beavers and otters have been in hiding since the cold weather started.  I'm guessing they are holding tight to their dens until hunger forces them out onto the water.  Otters have to come out while the beavers have stored food for the cold Winter and probably will be more absent from view over the Winter months.  They will forage in the Winter, however.

I always have to check on the eagles.  They are hanging out farther up on the mountain side than usual.  Wonder why that is.  It seems they no longer perch in the trees next to the water but prefer the very lofty heights.  They're getting really hard to photograph at that distance.  I have many, many pictures of them but, I can not resist taking more every time I see them.

I wasn't going to post an entry tonight because there really isn't much action on the river right now.  Things will wake up soon though with the arrival of the migratory birds in a week or two.  It was a nice day and I did shoot a very few pictures so what the heck.  Today is recorded.  I really do want to see the otters again though.  It won't be long until I'm transferred to Douglas Lake and I'll only be able to visit this river maybe once a week at best, and there isn't any otters on the mud hole - I mean Douglas Lake.  It's back up here to the river tomorrow.  We'll see what I turn up then.