I’m out paddling by 0600 hrs this morning, hoping to get some good morning light.  Unfortunately, the cloud cover is still with us, so there won’t be any good morning light.  Sure would like to see some blue skies again.

Not too far from the boat I spotted this eagle.

I got this one shot, and then he flew to the other side of the narrows, which was good, because he landed in a lower tree.  

It was a pretty shaky perch, so he decided to find something a little more substantial.

I paddled for 3-1/2 hours.  The water was flat calm, which makes paddling easy.  However, the only other photo op was this merganser.   I paddled and paddled trying to get close enough for a decent shot without spooking her, and she kept paddling just fast enough to maintain a distance that made it impossible to get a good shot.  She finally wore me out and I turned around and headed back toward the boat.

On my way back, I spotted this eagle.  He was situated so that I had to shoot into the glare of the cloud cover, but I liked the shot anyway.  

As soon as I got back to the boat, I helped Al launch the dinghy so he could go set the crab trap.  We didn’t get any crabs here last year, but we’ve had good luck in the past.  We’ll see.