Meetup at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

Civil Dawn

Today, Saturday, May 30, Mike Milica put together another great Meetup at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, Massachusetts.  The main item we will going to hopefully photograph was the Marsh Wren along with the red-winged blackbirds and what else we could find to photograph.

We met at the refuge parking lot at 5 AM, so we could be ready and out photographing at first light.  On my drive up from the home, there was moderate to thick fog present up on till Parkway on Route 128 N. at the refuge there was some fog over the water and over us some of the trees.  With the color in the sky from civil dawn and sunrise.  It allowed some nice landscapes.

Sunrise

In "Don's Early Light" a marsh wren was on the cattails singing.  Photographing marsh wrens takes patience as they will pop up onto reads and cattails and then drop down into the underbrush, so you just have to wait for the wrens to reappear.  Red-winged blackbirds were flying and singing all around us and were able to photograph them as they landed on bushes.

Marsh Wren

Marsh Wren

Red-Winged Blackbird Singing

Red-winged Blackbird Flying at You

I also photographed swamp sparrows and song sparrows, as they were singing and preening.  Also around were Canada geese, and great blue herons flying by.

Song Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

The group started breaking up around 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock.  As a group of us was leaving, one photographer had located a marsh Wren nest, partly hidden behind new cattail leaves and the nest was attached to last year's cattails.  I spent around the half-hour watching the nest and was able to get a few pictures of the marsh wren leaving and entering into the nest.  The only reason I quit was that I had a set up on the boardwalk and the number of people needing to pass by me increased and when a person pass by.  I had a move my tripod and then reset up to find the nest again.

Marsh Wren on the Cattail Leaves with the Nest. Behind It, and the Hole of the Net Visible

Finally, as I was walking out the path back to the car, I came across a white admiral butterfly, which gave gave me some good photographs.

White Admiral Picking up Minerals from the Soil

White Admiral

Using the coupon code mborn you will receive a 15% discount on any or all of the Topaz plug-ins.



Help Support my blog by purchasing from Amazon. Clicking on this link and utilizing the link does not cost you anything.
BUY FROM AMAZON