Swans, Shoveler, Owls (20140413) A run to the Southeast full of opportunity!

Even though it was a Sunday and I was scheduled to do the walk I opted to spending some time with Tim. We haven't been able to get out as much as we used to be able to. We stopped and looked at some groups of swans, and ducks. We had many opportunities and through the day I burned over 1000 camera clicks trying to capture the right moments. My first selection is a pair of very quick greenwinged teals.

Tim is a lover of swans so you will get a few shots here of what we found from a swan perspective, like this Trumpeter.

We were provided with many opportunities for Swans for Tim.

We watched this northern shrike hunt for a little bit until it got our of range. we didn't see it "bag" anything but it was a joy to see it try.

We had the pleasure of spotting this Pintail at a farily close distance and I am finding them to be a very pleasant subject.

We were very surprised to find so many roughlegged hawks still this far south. Like any raptor, these too make great subjects.

I didn't think that we would get the chance to shoot a northern flicker so this fella was a real treat to see.

The northern shoveler has a green head just like the mallards. I really enjoy getting images of them when their green heads show as blue in the sun light. This is likely my best shoveler shot to date.

 So through the day I managed to show Tim 7 different GHO nests. So we had plenty of chances to shoot owls. This will be the only shot for this post. It is three owlets in one of the nests. The are pretty young as they don't have any yellow feathers showing yet.

I will add a warning here that there will be many owlet shots coming soon. Here is yet another bird that I have on my "better shot" hit list, the american widgeon.

We wrapped up the day about 3:00 p.m. with a little time with a roadside muskrat.

It was a tough chore to pare a 1000 shots down to a single post, but these are representative of what we saw and spent time with on the day. I have to say that we had a great day from a light perspective. The company was great as well!
Turbo