A Morning Birding and Photographing at Daniel Webster Sanctuary

The view from the afternoon blind across the pond, looking toward the morning blind

Finally, this Thursday my friend Doug and I finally have gotten out again to go birding.  Because Doug's back is still not completely well,  we went down to Daniel Webster Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield, where we could observe the birds, utilizing the blinds.  Arriving at the sanctuary, there was a lot of activity around the parking lot, including a number of bluebirds.

After settling down in the morning blind, the activity was slow with a group of mallards in the water in front of us, feeding.  The two best birds at that we saw was a Solitary Sandpiper and a pair of Glossy Ibis.  It was an enjoyable just watching the activity occurring in front of us.

Glossy Ibis preening

Glossy Ibis catching its food

Glossy Ibis looking for food

Solitary Sandpiper

We decided to go around to the afternoon blind to see if there was anything else occurring at that area.  What surprised us, when we reached the blind, was the real low level of the water at that end of the pond.  Bird activity was slow, except for a group of mallards, which were preening and did give a wing flap.

Mallard with the wing flap

Walking back to the parking lot.  We did come across a Cedar Waxwing and a Savannah Sparrow.  Along the fence and Eastern chipmunk was going to with stand with his cheek pockets filled with seeds that it took from the bird feeders.

Eastern Phoebe

Savannah Sparrow

Cedar waxwing

Eastern chipmunk with its cheeks full

In total we identified 33 different species of birds, in the few hours that we were there at the sanctuary.

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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.

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