Thursday, May 8, 2014

Bird watching at Horicon Marsh

We have tried to make our yard such that it will attract many species and have been successful.  Our regular birds include about 2 dozen species and we have recorded close to 4 dozen different species in our yard at one point or another.  But today we decided to expand our bird watching to one of the best bird watching areas in the state, the Horicon Marsh. 

I took along a tripod and my dad’s Tamron 500mm mirror lens and so got some really close up pictures.  With this lens you have to manually set the shutter speed and so I was experimenting with different shutter speeds to better be able to pick the right shutter speed.  Hence, some of the pictures are a little washed out or a little dark.  It didn’t help that the sun kept coming out and going behind clouds so the lighting was constantly changing.

Enjoy!

A Whooping Crane (This was taken with my used (but new to me) Quantaray 70-300mm lens.)
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Sandhill Cranes having a little too much fun (these pictures are just a bit blurry as I wasn’t using the tripod and trying to brace myself on the door frame of the car)
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Great Blue Heron
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Great Egret (the first two were taken with the Quantaray 70-500 lens, the last taken with the Tamron 500mm lens)
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Geese by themselves are so numerous that I don’t normally take photos of them, but who can resist babies.
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Synchronized Mallard Ducks
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American Robin guarding eggs or babies (the often overlooked bird)
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Yellow Warbler
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I believe this is a Yellow-rumped “Myrtle” Warbler
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A trip to Horicon is never complete without swallows which are very abundant.  Here are tree swallows.  The pair in the second picture seemed completely unconcerned about our presence as we walked by them on the trail.
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Barn Swallows never sit still so it can be a challenge to get photos of them.
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My best guess on this bird is that it is a Franklin’s Gull.
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Common Tern – These were fun to watch fish.  They would hover about 10 feet above the water and when they saw their prey they plunged into the water.  They were also noisy birds.
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Black Tern
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The American Goldfinch
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Red-winged Blackbird (another abundant species at the marsh)
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A complete surprise to us was the painted turtles and the number of them.  There were over 75 lined upon the shore and on logs, not to mention at least one poking his head up from under water.
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