I was talking the other day with Teri Franzen about the problems down at Brick Pond. Essentially, the pond had to be drained to have work done on the water control system that keeps the pond from getting too high and with the dry weather this summer it appeared that BP was in trouble. I commented that BP was done for the year, whether or not the water came back. I had been over to visit a few times recently and the pond looked like a big open field. But Teri cautioned me not to write the obituary yet, that she thought it could come back.
So I made a trip over to BP this morning with my camera, not expecting to see much of anything. I was in the blind on the south side of the pond and the sight lines were terrible. The high grass obscured a lot of what water was left. But there was some open water around the Beaver lodge so I figured I would stick around for an hour, and after seeing nothing, I would head out to DD for a coffee. Well, I never got that coffee!
Shortly after dawn two Green Herons went zipping over my head, hightailing it for the far shoreline. And there was a goose following right behind. I thought it was very odd that a goose would be with a heron and when I got my binoculars on the birds I found that I was looking at a mature Bald Eagle! I think Heron was on the menu for the Eagle but he really couldn’t match the speed of the herons in a distance race……
After the Eagle gave up, the Herons came back and began to feed around the beaver lodge but I couldn’t get a good shot. There ended up being 3 of them competing for territory. I think they just like harassing each other! Then the Kingfishers moved in. It’s a long shot from the blind to the beaver lodge on such a small bird so I didn’t get anything awesome, but I can live with what they gave me.
There were 3 of them, but I couldn’t get them all in the same shot!
This little one kept me company…. this pic shows the effect of a long lens at a short distance in low light. Almost no depth of field! Note the tick right behind the eye….
Then it was the Great Blue herons turn. One positive thing about the lack of water is that the birds are more concentrated, making it easier to find the birds. And this guy was having a great day fishing!
What a pig!
It took him several tries to get the fish down his throat!!!!
Look at the difference in the white balance in the first two images versus the last two images. I left it that way purposely to show what a difference light quality makes in an image….
So thanks Teri for setting me straight. I had a great morning!!!