January 9th, Smithville Lake.

Went to Smithville lake a few weeks ago in January to see the eagles but this year we only saw like one! Sad!  :( I guess just because it was so cold and so much of the ice was frozen over so they couldn't get some nice fishy lunch. But I'm glad we at least saw one! We saw several kinds of ducks though, and a couple herons and a few hawks..Oh and some horses driving on the way there; they looked so beautiful out there in the snow! So it was a pretty good trip even if we didn't get to see ten-plus eagles.

Here's one of a good old' red-tailed hawk. Can always count on seeing at least one whenever we go somewhere, or even at home too. Still just as amazing,even if common.

View of the lake.

Most of the open water was areas near, and around the docks. But I thought it was pretty cool, with all those boats on the water with snow all around; not your normal scene. If you look closely at the background all those black dots are a ton of Canada geese.

More goldeneye, taking off. They did that a lot, very easily scared off.

Male and female hooded merganseres.

Common goldeneyes, and common mergansers. Actually my first time seeing the common mergansers, in the wild at least.

Small flock of common goldeneye.

Can't say I love them as much as an eagle, but it was a least something. Here's one of the Great-blue herons we saw. Looking for a fish I think.

Hooded mergansers and a female common goldeneye at bottom right.

Best for last! The eagle!! I took these from pretty far away so the quality isn't amazing but the bird certainly is!

Flying away! Continuous mode is pretty darn useful!

Sitting pretty.

And here's that pretty horse in the snow.