Name That Bird

The BV reopened this morning, after being closed for dredging for the last few weeks. It's nice to be back, to have my space back, and to know what a day is going to bring, instead of not knowing what I'll be doing from one moment to the next.

I noticed a new bird today. A BIG bird, larger than a duck, the size of a goose almost. There are two of them, obviously a male and a female. I looked through a bird book and my bird book app, and I have no clue what these two are! Any ideas?

They have webbed feet, are awkward fliers, and have a hoarse honk for a call. They hung out on shore, not very scared of people, all day, sleeping out in the open. I really want to know what they are!

In other news, last thursday, I helped get the WL Ferry into the water. If you remember, the ferry was pulled out of the water for it's every-5-year check by the Coast Guard, where we also did a huge amount of repairs. It was pretty incredible watching such a huge ferry be manhandled by two heavy duty bulldozers. And the noises it made! The ferry is sitting on steel beams, which were sitting on steel plates, which sat on the concrete or dirt. The ground 30 feet away where I stood shook when it moved.

The bulldozers, as you can see in that video, picked up the steel beams, and pushed them forward, shoving the ferry along with it. At one point when they stopped, I was stunned to see how much weight and pressure was on the 'dozer tires:

I took several steps backwards when I saw that front tire.

We worked an extremely long day on Thursday. Once the ferry was actually in the water, we still had to hook up the baloney, steering cables and low water line. Plus we had to make sure everything worked, get the tools back on board, and everything in it's place as much as possible.

UPDATE! Almost as soon as I posted, a friend suggested that the birds are Muscovy Ducks. Which, after looking at several pictures of the various colors of Muscovies, I think she's right! So cool! Thanks Karen!