It was sunny again after the bust of a day turtle hunting while overcast. We walked out to the dam, and the water fowl were out again. We got a decent look at them through the scope and camera, so we are pretty sure that these are Pie-billed Grebe. We did get a better picture of them than the first time we saw them. There were three of them that all looked similar. The males and females look very similar, but the males have a slightly thicker bill and are slightly larger.

Grebes are superficially similar to ducks, but they are more closely related to flamingos. Instead of webbed feet, they have broad toes for paddling.

They dive to feed on fish, which is what this group was doing.

At the end of the dam, there were two large turtles across the water, but the wind made it impossible to get decent long distance pictures. We packed up, got in the car, and drove close to the turtle bridge, and parked. It was about a quarter of a mile hike to the turtles, but they were back in force. There were more than thirty of them today.

Mostly, they just floated in the water in the sun, drifting around, and warming up.

In the following two pictures, we both agreed that we liked the close-up picture of the turtle better.

In the pictures below, you can see the perils of auto-focus. Look at the turtle snout poking up in the middle just to the right of the lily pad. What do you notice?

The one on the left is out of focus and the one on the right is in focus. If you look carefully, you will see that the reflection of the reeds on the left is in focus instead of the turtle. Bad camera! Bad!

There is nothing special about these next turtles, unless you ask their mother. She is certain that they are all special.

While taking pictures, John thought he saw a few minnows in the pond. On of them photo-bombed his turtle pictures. You can see the little scoundrel on the right side of the first image.

The turtles and John also photobombed my selfie :-).