Busy Day

Great Egret prior to losing the fish

 

Monday was a very busy day. As in my previous blog, I started out at midnight photographing the nights sky for a few hours. Came home and downloaded the pictures and rested. Then I put together all the material for the talk that I was giving that evening for the photography group at the Newburyport Art Association. We traveled up earlier in the afternoon prior to the meeting and visited Parker River national wildlife refuge and photographed the birds. One of the most interesting events was watching a great egret fishing for food in the pannes. I saw a couple of events that I had not seen in previous observations of great egrets. The first event was the egret, after catching a fish, dropped it and lost it so it had to continue fishing. I have seen other wading birds spreading their wings as they finished, but not great egrets. In fact, this great Egret only spread one wing as it fished. Finally, the egret caught another fish and this time was able to eat it.

Great Egret with one wing spread fishing

Great Egret Fishing Sequence

Great Egret Fishing Sequence

Great Egret Fishing Sequence

Great Egret Fishing Sequence

 

What made the afternoon interesting that there was an intermittent very strong wind that at times would almost blow me off my feet, which meant definitely. I had to use my sturdiest tripod to keep the camera and lens steady.

After a supper at the Black Cow restaurant in Newburyport, which served an excellent meal, good portions and very tasty, I went and set up at the Newburyport Art Association and gave my talk about photographing coastal brown bears in Alaska. The talk was well received, I will be happy to present it for any local camera clubs.

After arriving at home, since my son was not able to join us photographing the night sky early in the morning, we all went out again so that he would have a chance to photograph the Milky Way. I had a chance to try out my new Rokinon 8 mm fisheye lens.

Night Sky Taken with a Fisheye Lens