Scottes
1st of August 2004 (Sun), 14:05
I went out Saturday looking for some shore birds.
I stopped at the park and took a short walk around for a bit since I'd never been to this place. I watched a cormorant diving close to the parking lot, and I scared some kind of bird hunting in the march grass, watched a number of gulls and cormorants screaming at each other, and saw an egret fly overhead. Not bad for 5 minutes, so I figured the place would be worth a few hours of my time, and I headed off to a cove that sounded promising.
Walking down the trail, this rabbit bounced across, and stayed at the edge of the trail and stopped. He seemed to be wondering if he should run into the woods, or stay on the nice road. He stayed for quite a bit, letting me get closer and closer, but finally bounded into the woods.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Rabbit_7614.jpg
(This picture has far too much grass and fur to compress well. Anything less than 150KB looked bad to me, but I figured that I had to get it down below 60KB. I finally broke down and masked the rabbit to do a weighted compression with Save for Web. I'm still not happy...)
A couple minutes later another rabbit popped out, and let me get even closer, but I couldn't get a shot because he was backlit in shadow right on the edge of bright sunfilled spot of grass. No shot there, but he was cute just the same.
After a while I made it to the place I was seeking - quite a pretty spot looking down a long cove and out into Long Island Sound. The edge of the cove was lightly lined with marsh grass, and it looks like a very promising place when shorebird migration begins.
The State of Connecticut was nice enough to place a bench on a little spit of land poking into the cove. I sat for quite a while, watching an egret jumping around catching breakfast (man do I wish that I had that Canon 1200mm...). Scores of Canadian Geese kept swooping up the cove and flying almost directly overhead. A turkey Vulture landed on a pole behind me at one point, and after sitting quietly for a while the American Goldfinches came back out and twitted happily among the bushes and trees.
A pair of Common Terns (my best guess) also stopped by for a while, swooping and diving and grabbing little fish. I got several pictures of them diving and flying off with fish, but I liked this one the best.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/CommonTern_7795.jpg
After a couple hours of this I kept hearing more and more people on the trail behind me. I figured that the place was going to get crowded, so I set off for home. Besides, it was getting pretty muggy and the sun was *hot*.
I took a different trail back, and came across a large flower with a butterfly doing it's breakfast routine. It flitted around the flower for a few minutes, and then flew off. Since I didn't get a decent picture I decided to wait, and after a few minutes he flew back to the flower. And after a bit he flew away, so I moved closer figuring that he'd be back. He did come back, ate a bit, and flew off. So I moved closer again, and waited.
After about 20 minutes of this came I was about 10 feet away from the flower and it was just about filling the frame. So I waited some more, and it was worthwhile I think.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Butterfly_7838.jpg
I say that I think it was worthwhile. I like this image, but something bothers me and I don't know what it is. I think it's the composition overall - the big drooping bud on the right doesn't seem to work with the butterfly on the left. Comments?
Well a couple and their dog came by, and I figured that 20 minutes with a butterfly was enough, so I headed home.
At one point I heard a weird little birdsong, and stopped to scan the trees. I found it after a bit - a Cedar Waxwing. What a beautiful bird - usually. This one was possibly Connecticut's scraggliest Waxwing. That now makes three times that I've seen a Cedar Waxwing and haven't been able to get a decent picture. One of these days....
So a weird day of differing wildlife on a day looking for shorebirds. I'll take it though, and I'll be back to this place.
I stopped at the park and took a short walk around for a bit since I'd never been to this place. I watched a cormorant diving close to the parking lot, and I scared some kind of bird hunting in the march grass, watched a number of gulls and cormorants screaming at each other, and saw an egret fly overhead. Not bad for 5 minutes, so I figured the place would be worth a few hours of my time, and I headed off to a cove that sounded promising.
Walking down the trail, this rabbit bounced across, and stayed at the edge of the trail and stopped. He seemed to be wondering if he should run into the woods, or stay on the nice road. He stayed for quite a bit, letting me get closer and closer, but finally bounded into the woods.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Rabbit_7614.jpg
(This picture has far too much grass and fur to compress well. Anything less than 150KB looked bad to me, but I figured that I had to get it down below 60KB. I finally broke down and masked the rabbit to do a weighted compression with Save for Web. I'm still not happy...)
A couple minutes later another rabbit popped out, and let me get even closer, but I couldn't get a shot because he was backlit in shadow right on the edge of bright sunfilled spot of grass. No shot there, but he was cute just the same.
After a while I made it to the place I was seeking - quite a pretty spot looking down a long cove and out into Long Island Sound. The edge of the cove was lightly lined with marsh grass, and it looks like a very promising place when shorebird migration begins.
The State of Connecticut was nice enough to place a bench on a little spit of land poking into the cove. I sat for quite a while, watching an egret jumping around catching breakfast (man do I wish that I had that Canon 1200mm...). Scores of Canadian Geese kept swooping up the cove and flying almost directly overhead. A turkey Vulture landed on a pole behind me at one point, and after sitting quietly for a while the American Goldfinches came back out and twitted happily among the bushes and trees.
A pair of Common Terns (my best guess) also stopped by for a while, swooping and diving and grabbing little fish. I got several pictures of them diving and flying off with fish, but I liked this one the best.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/CommonTern_7795.jpg
After a couple hours of this I kept hearing more and more people on the trail behind me. I figured that the place was going to get crowded, so I set off for home. Besides, it was getting pretty muggy and the sun was *hot*.
I took a different trail back, and came across a large flower with a butterfly doing it's breakfast routine. It flitted around the flower for a few minutes, and then flew off. Since I didn't get a decent picture I decided to wait, and after a few minutes he flew back to the flower. And after a bit he flew away, so I moved closer figuring that he'd be back. He did come back, ate a bit, and flew off. So I moved closer again, and waited.
After about 20 minutes of this came I was about 10 feet away from the flower and it was just about filling the frame. So I waited some more, and it was worthwhile I think.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Butterfly_7838.jpg
I say that I think it was worthwhile. I like this image, but something bothers me and I don't know what it is. I think it's the composition overall - the big drooping bud on the right doesn't seem to work with the butterfly on the left. Comments?
Well a couple and their dog came by, and I figured that 20 minutes with a butterfly was enough, so I headed home.
At one point I heard a weird little birdsong, and stopped to scan the trees. I found it after a bit - a Cedar Waxwing. What a beautiful bird - usually. This one was possibly Connecticut's scraggliest Waxwing. That now makes three times that I've seen a Cedar Waxwing and haven't been able to get a decent picture. One of these days....
So a weird day of differing wildlife on a day looking for shorebirds. I'll take it though, and I'll be back to this place.