Today we almost decided to stay at home due to the foggy conditions. We also had some rain this morning to add to the miserable conditions.
While we didn't think we were going to be lucky enough to see much of anything at our usual birding area things did start to reveal themselves to us. There were the usual Great Blue Herons. We usually can't get too close to them but with the fog almost acting as a blind we did get fairly close to some of them. I thought this made an interesting shot. 
Even the huge rafts of Mallards let us get close to them. Of course as soon as they realized we were so near they all took off.
One of the most interesting sights we saw today was, no not thise lovely little coot but one of its own being devoured by an adult Bald Eagle. Unfortunately when we got close enough to see what was happening we were unable to get a picture because the Eagle took off with its breakfast dangling from its talons.
All that was left behind were the feathers that the Eagle had been plucking. 
As we went around the SW end of the area we bird to an area we don't hit every week we were thrilled to find 8, no not 8 tiny reindeer, 8 huge Whooping Cranes flying through the air.
I mean this is almost unheard of anyplace since these birds are still an endangered species. This area is right along the Wabash River which we suppose that the Whooping Cranes were following south.
We ran into a hunter that told us they had been in this area for 2 weeks. Some of them have radio transmitters on them and they are being monitered by every agency that has a concern for them.
There are two immatures in this group. If you enlarge one of the pictures you can see the cinnamon coloring on the juveniles. It takes a whole year for the juveniles to molt into adult plummage.
There they go into the fog. Just a magical moment seeing these birds come out of the fog into view.
I am so thankful that my DB took these wonderful pictures. I was way too excited to even think about it. I hope you all are having a good day too despite any foul weather.
While I enjoyed the German foods , christmas trappings and the charming entertainment I really went to see the booth set up by my friend Patricia. She is a milliner. Millinery is an almost lost art form. Women don't wear hats as they once did, yet it seems that in this day and age there is a small contingent of women that still like to wear hats. 
The trees around the ginkos try their best to out shine the ginkos.
interchange lenses, for those of you who don't know. I mainly use a 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens and rarely use a 400mm telephoto. Very, very rarely I also use a 2x extender lens with those, which more than doubles the power of the lens. You see the 400mm lens in the above picture. For flowers and butterflies, I use the 70-300mm lens. That does a decent job but with my old Canon Rebel film camera, I often used a 28-80mm lens with a macro feature. The macro setting allows for close focusing. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get that lens to be recognized by the digital camera even though it works fine with the film camera.
As you can see from her pictures, we sometimes set the camera on a tripod for feeder pictures to keep the camera steady. When we are "out of the garden" , however, this is usually not possible or convenient. Then the shots are hand-held. Lots of blurred pictures due to the unsteady photographer.
OO oo was there movement down there? Come here little birdie. I won't hurt you...
The Cooper's walked several feet around the bushes. Poking its head in every once in awhile. The poor thing departed with empty talons. Too bad. We have plenty of House Sparrows to spare.