Birds of Pleasure Island -- Another Entry!

Kure Beach where I spend my winters is on an island  It is only an island because the Army Corps of Engineers made a canal between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cape Fear River back in the 1930s.  The island is called Pleasure Island which always sounds like a bad porno movie title to me so I rarely mention it.  It is a great place to live as there is Carolina Beach State Park at one end and Ft. Fisher and wildlife refuge at the other end so lots of opportunity for wildlife pictures.  Our house is a block from the beach so I can watch dolphins from my third floor porch -- tough life I know.

The picture is of an Osprey carrying away a fish he has just caught in his talons.  Most of the rest of the pictures are of this Osprey who entertained me for a good fifteen minutes diving multiple times and coming up with good sized fish.  I think he only managed to hold onto one though and a sea gull was trying to get it away from him.  I had never seen an Osprey at Carolina Beach Lake before although they are quite common down here in the warmer weather.

I liked this picture as it shows the really ferocious looking talons he uses to catch the fish.

 Just a couple of nice side views of the Osprey.

His eyes were consistently looking downward trying to find that next fish

Here  he is in full dive mode!!  (I should mention that I took 500 pictures in 15 minutes this day with only about 50 worth keeping.  I was challenging myself with these action pictures of this Osprey.)

Another with his fish.

This was also a very handsome pair of Northern Shovelers that came closer than before (only about 75 feet away instead of three times that amount).  Here is the male.

Here is the pair with the female taking the lead.  This may become a small quilt at some point.

There were a lot of Dunlins down by the pier south of the  Ft Fisher Ferry.   

There were also a couple of Short-billed Dowagers in the group.  They were all far away in not great light so there may have been other species as well.  I suspect one was a Lesser Yellowlegs which I haven't seen at that particular location before.