Oops! And Lesser Yellowlegs

How it happened, I do not know.  But I can tell you do not try to take pictures of birds in flight or action shots with your camera set on bracketing.  I was out photographing with my D 500 and for the first photos,  everything was fine and until I came home and downloaded the pictures I found that I somehow turned on the bracketing mode and shot a  large number of photos that were bracketed.  Because I was shooting in manual and auto ISO.  I found that usually only one picture in the set was in focus.  If I chimp the lot, I probably would have found this out sooner than arriving at home.  I missed out on some exciting sequences because of this.

Set of bracketed photos

Set of bracketed photos

Set of bracketed photos

There was a pair of lesser yellowlegs chasing each other over the pannes, which would have made a great series.  Thank goodness there were salvageable photos.

Lesser Yellowlegs Chasing a Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs Chasing a Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs Chasing a Lesser Yellowlegs

Daniel Webster and Needing Patience

Canada Goose in Flight

Today was another spring day, with the sky a beautiful blue and hardly any clouds. However, the temperature was only in the mid-40s, and there was a strong Northwind, which added a chill factor. Doug and I traveled today to Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Today show the value of patience. We first stopped at the morning blind and observed some birds flying back and forth. What we were hoping for was a Wilson Snipe. Doug located one feeding in the grasses at the edge of the marsh and pond. We had a watch at least 20 minutes the Snipe moving back and forth until finally it gave me a clear shot. The Snipe would keep hiding its head behind brushes of grasses. Patience paid off.

Wilson Snipe

From the blind looking across to the other side, there was a pair of bluebirds, so we traveled over to that blind to see if we could find photograph the bluebirds. No such luck. But, a few savanna sparrows were around in the grass in front of the blind feeding. Again it took a while till I was able to get a photograph of one where it was not completely hidden in the grass and bushes.

Savannah Sparrow

We then went for a walk and came across a kestrel sitting on a bluebird box; I did get a picture of the kestrel peering over his shoulder at me. I slowly made the way down the path so I could adjust the light on the kestrel that it was coming over my shoulder and even though I went slowly and was a least 50 feet away and the kestrel took off into a tree further away and still when it's back toward us.

Kestrel

Further down the walk, we noticed a bird in the tree and when we looked at it with the binocular's it turned out to be a wild turkey.

Wild Turkey in the Tree

Finally, walking back toward the parking lot, we came across a pine warbler, which again took some time getting a picture where the warbler wasn't hidden behind branches.

Pine Warbler

As I keep saying a better day is out birding and photographing a natural world than working behind the desk. And for a finale a Cooper's Hawk.

Cooper's Hawk

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.

Little Blue Heron, and More at Daniel Webster

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

This Sunday was a beautiful morning with a great sunrise.  As I traveled to Marshfield to visit Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary.  The reason I traveled was because there have been reports of a juvenile Little Blue Heron present at the sanctuary.  Normally I have seen the juvenile Little Blue Heron down in Florida.  As opposed to the adult Little Blue Heron, the juvenile plumage is usually all white as opposed to the dark bluish-gray body that the adult has.

Arriving at the sanctuary, I walked down to the morning blind that overlooks the small pond.  The sanctuary has two blinds, a morning blind and an afternoon blind.  The blinds are positioned so the sun is coming over your shoulder and illuminating the creatures that are in front of you.  In the blind, there are screws that you can mount your tripod head on.  I set my gimbal head and attached my 500 mm F/4 lens starting out with a 1.4 converter and utilizing my Nikon D800.

Red-shoulder Hawk

The morning started out with a Hawk in the distance, and to capture it, I switched my converter to the 2X.  We then got a Green Heron closer was which required switching back to the 1.4 converter.  Later on, a Sandpiper appeared, which required the 2X converter plus changing the crop mode of my camera to 1.5, so that I could get a decent picture.  The question was, was this a Solitary Sandpiper or a Spotted Sandpiper.  After reviewing the pictures on my computer, there was no white notch before the wing, therefore, I called it a solitary Sandpiper.

Green Heron with its crest up

Solitary Sandpiper

This is a morning where I had to change from using converter's of various lengths to no converter's so that I get the photograph that I wanted.

All of a sudden, in front of us appeared the Little Blue Heron, which was so close that I almost had too much glass to take its picture.

Little Blue Heron

After finishing all of photography, I came home and downloaded the pictures and am thinking about returning again to Daniel Webster tomorrow.  The reason is that the plants and spiderwebs were covered with dew, and would make very interesting pictures.  The weather report is for fog in the morning so I hope we will get the great dew on the subjects.  This will require my macro lens, rather than my 500 mm lens.

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