Birds Galore

Today I again spent several hours out in the WLR I know big surprize. I am begining to wonder if maybe I should have my mail sent out there instead as it feels I am there much more than I am home. My main goal for today was to capture a shot of a new bird I have stumbled across in the marsh the other day when I did not have my camera along rule #1 always have your camera.Luckily this was not a lesson learned and I was able to spot one out again it is named the Sora (pictured below). My other challenge was to get as close as possible to the Pelican's which is a challenge in itself but I was able to get a half way decent shot with significant cropping to the image so getting closer still poses as a challeng to me.

1. Sora

2. This is either the Common Tern or the Forster's Tern not sure

3. American White Pelican

4. Yellow Goldfinch

5,6,and 7. Tree Swallow






8. Killdeer




Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed

Chad

Out Of My Rut

Ever since my prairie chicken trip I have found myself in a rut. I took a large number of photos none of which I was even slightly happy with. Today I set out to get back into the swing of things so I loaded up my camera, two oldest children along with my two nieces and set out once again to the Horicon Marsh. As you can see I ended up with a few shots that I am pretty pleased with.

Here I photographed two Tern's one that is sitting on top of a muskrat den. I am unsure if this is a nesting spot or not I do know that the Canada geese nest on the tops of these dens so I will have to keep watching to see if the Tern does as well.
The other was flying around doing amazing dives into the water to retrieve tiny fish to eat I did photograph this but it was a bit out of focus so I did not include it in this series.

And as mentioned the Canada goose. Here is a pair that has had there goslins and boy are they cute but be warned don't get to close cause the parents are very protective of there young and they grab hold and twist I have not experienced this myself but have seen it happen.

And last but not least the barn swallow. This one was hanging around the floating bridge sitting on the rope railing so I took a shot. I was trying to get a shot of a tree swallow but this was just fine perhaps this weekend I will get to photograph one.

Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed

Chad

Prairie chickens

Today my wife and I joined up with friends of ours to watch the booming of prairie chickens. This species is threatened in Wisconsin. And it is in the efforts of the DNR to increase the population and bring back this once abundent bird. My good friend works for the DNR and provided access to one of the VIP blinds that the DNR has placed on the booming grounds of the Buena Vista Reserve. I can not begin to describe how amazing this opportunity was and that I hope I have this chance again in the near future. In these first group of photos depicts how the males defend there territories and if they cross into others boundries things can get quite physical.

What this photo shows is the booming call the males make they puff out their cheeks and make a very interesting sound.

Now in these next two photos you will see we had a surprise visitor hanging around trying to make a meal out of the males but was unsuccessful and flew off.

The shots didn't turn out to well but I felt the need to share. I believe this to be an owl after viewing the photo once I uploaded it to the pc.

And now things get very interesting as a hen (female) moves in and stood where three males territories met What a tease.

Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed

Chad

Birds

Well today I set out with another photographer that I met on the photography forum I frequent. Our intentions were to get some good shots of the eagles that are there along the Fox river fishing often. We had no luck as the weather got warmer this past week and opened the river further giving them more area to fish. This pretty much ended our chances of getting close to them. So I wasn't about to go home after 2 hours of drive time round trip empty handed so here are a few photos I ended up with of birds that were cooperating.

And here is what we are thinking is a paper mill across the river My black and white conversions are little to be desired as I need to get better at those with practice.

Mourning The Morning Bitterness

We had lots of visitors in one of our Ironwood trees today I could not even begin to count how many were actually there These are a few shots I took. I’m sure most of you know but for those that may not these are mourning doves

Birds

Well what can I say I spend alot more time in the Horicon Marsh Wildlife Refuge than I would like to admit.But upon viewing these images that show what I see everytime I am out walking the hiking trails can you blame me. Here are various birds I come across on my frequent trips.