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January 25, 2011
We found Roper Lake State Park on a map and decided to go there. It is a small little lake with a little hot spring feeding a tiny hot tub which warms the lake slightly but it is also fed from the snow dusted local mountains so it is cold right now but suitable for swimming in the summer.
We found a nice site near the lakeshore with plenty of room between us and our neighbors.
We bought a postcard with a nice picturesque photograph of the lake taken from between to palm trees. I searched the lakeshore, tying to discover where the photo was taken from and finally discovered a few little palm like trees on the lake's little picnicking island.
So we walked out on the island and I was able to get this shot with our campground on the far side.
The Local Wildlife
A number of ducks hung around the shoreline just a short ways from our campsite.
The American Coots seemed to hang back a bit, always making way for the ducks.
In the late afternoon the Yellow Headed Blackbirds would arrive and hang around for awhile. We would often see them again in the not too early morning but they spend the daytime somewhere else.
We see a white egret once in a while who flies off as soon as a person becomes visible. I finally managed to get into position and was ready just as the egret took off, clicking the shutter for that perfect shot of the egret soaring just over the water's surface. However the camera's memory card was back in our RV next to my computer, so I only have that picture in my own memory and, unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who have the talent to print (paint) images from their internal memory. But I could hardly let it go at that, so had to have a few more attempts, finally with the above result.
More Duck Pictures
The ducks keep their distance, requiring one to use a telephoto lens to get them up close-- unless they think something to eat might be in the offering.
Hold anything small in your hand and the ducks take it as an invitation to come on up.
One particular white duck stays right up front so that there can be a little conversation about who gets the choice pieces of whatever might be offered.
These ducks clearly understand the words "That's all," and immediately loose interest, turn around and head back to the water.
The pattern was repeated the next day with another one-on-one discussion about who was the most deserving and best behaved duck.
Occasionally we would find them just standing around, probably just for our entertainment, or probably waiting to see if someone might step towards them with a little snack.
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