Between a recent surgery followed by a nasty bug, I’ve been house bound for almost 2 weeks and was happy to be able to go out for a while today and enjoy the sunshine along with a few birds. Since today kicked off the Great Back Yard Bird Count, I decided to stay very local. I started out around Lake Carmel and then headed to the other end of Carmel for a hike in the woods. I was hoping to find an owl out sunning him or herself. That did not happen but there is always tomorrow. To be honest, I am still struggling with the camera and definitely have not figured out all the functions and numbers to get the best photo in various light conditions. Hopefully, that will come with more practice. The gulls were around Lake Carmel. It was nice to see adult Herring Gulls as well as other stages and ages. The Ring-billed Gulls are frequently fed by people who think …don’t really know what they think, but today I watched a man feed them Cheese Doodles. Regardless, they are smart and as soon as a car pulls into the lot, they all come. The belted kingfisher has been on the northern end of the lake the entire winter.